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INSTRUCTION  OF  THE  INQUIRER 


JACOB,  SON  OF  AARON 

High  Priest  of  the    Samaritans  at  Nablous,   Palestine 

Translated  from  the  Arabic  by 

PROFESSOR  A.  BEN  KORI 

Pacific  University,  Forest  GTOTC,  Oregon 

Edited  by 

WILLIAM  E.  BARTON,  D.D. 
Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  Oak  Park.  111. 


The  Puritan  Press 

Sublette,  111. 

1913 


The  chapters  comprising  this  book  were  first 
printed  in  BIBLIOTHECA  SACBA  In  1913,  following 
other  important  writings  by  the  Samaritan  High 
Priest.  The  courtesy  of  the  editor  is  acknowl- 
in  their  reprinting. 


PRESS  or 

THE  NEWS   PRINTING  COMPANY 
OBERLIN.  OHIO 


5" 
03  / 
STfel 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 

THIS  book  is  printed  by  the  generosity  of  Mr.  E.  K. 
Warren,  an  American  friend  of  the  Samaritans,  and  is  fur- 
nished to  the  High  Priest  in  order  that  its  sale  may  afford  a 
small  revenue  for  the  Samaritan  colony.  These  people  are 
very  poor,  and  tourists  who  wish  to  assist  in  the  maintenance 
of  the  school  can  do  so  by  the  purchase  of  this  and  other 
books  for  sale  by  them. 

The  editor  desires  to  ask  American  tourists  visiting  Pal- 
estine to  make  their  purchases  of  Samaritan  books  as 
directly  as  possible  from  the  priests  at  Nablous  (Schechem). 
Spurious  manuscripts  are  for  sale  by  dealers  and  others.  The 
High  Priest  guarantees  that  all  copies  of  the  Samaritan  books 
sold  at  the  Synagogue  are  correct  and  entire,  and  that  the 
proceeds  go  to  the  school. 

Throughout  many  centuries  this  singular  little  sect  has 
continued  to  live  under  the  shadow  of  its  holy  mountain. 
Some  good  purpose,  surely,  God  will  yet  reveal  through  their 
existence.  This  book,  which  is  curious  and  interesting,  will 
assist  to  a  correct  understanding  of  their  life  and  teaching. 

THE  EDITOR. 


1694790 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 

THE  following  work  was  prepared,  at  the  request  of  the  editor, 
by  the  Samaritan  High  Priest,  and  is  designed  to  answer  the  ques- 
tions which  are  most  frequently  asked  of  the  Samaritan  priests, 
both  by  strangers  and  by  some  of  their  own  communion.  He  has 
entitled  the  book  "The  Book  of  Enlightenment  for  the  Instruc-^ 
tion  of  the  Inquirer."  It  is  written  in  Arabic  in  neat  manuscript, 
the  quotations  from  Scripture  being  in  the  Samaritan  Hebrew,  and 
written  in  red  ink. 

It  cannot  be  pretended  that  the  questions  are  in  every  case  those 
that  the  average  American  scholar  is  most  eager  to  propose.  But 
the  book  as  a  whole  is  not  only  interesting  but  instructive.  It  is 
a  succinct  statement  of  the  present  tenets  of  the  Samaritans,  and 
a  fine  example  of  their  dialectic.  The  attention  of  scholars  is  in- 
creasingly directed  to  the  Samaritans  for  the  valuable  side  light 
which  their  customs  throw  on  many  questions  of  Jewish  practice. 
The  editor  believes  that  this  is  a  permanently  valuable  document. 

The  questions  which  the  High  Priest  undertakes  to  answer  are 
the  following: — 

1.  Concerning   the  duration  of    the  plagues   of  Egypt. — His   an- 
swer is,  that  the  whole  time  covered  by  the  plagues,  including  the 
intervals  between  them,  was  two  months  and  a  half. 

2.  Concerning   the  number  and  classification  of   the  miracles. — 
He  counts  the  number  as  eleven,  holding  that  the  sign  of  the  rod 
in  the  hand  of  Moses  should  be  counted  a  sign  in  itself,  in  addi- 
tion  to  the   specific  miracles   wrought  by   it,    in   the  plagues.     He 
classifies    the    miracles    as    those    wrought    by    God    alone,    those 
wrought  by  God  through  Moses,  those  wrought  through  Aaron,  and 
those  in  which  both  Moses  and  Aaron  were  employed. 

3.  Concerning    the    origin    and    significance    of    the    ceremonial 
year. — He  holds  that  the  new  calendar  established  at  the  time  of 
the  Exodus  was  really  the  reestablishment  of  the  calendar  begun 
at  the  creation. 

4.  Concerning  the  time  of  the  institution  of  the  Passover. — This 
leads  him  into  a  full  discussion  of  all  that  is  involved  in  the  Pass- 
over, and  incidentally  brings  in  the  condemnation  of  a  heretic  who 
taught  that  the   prohibition  of  fire  which  belongs  to  the   Sabbath 
does   not  apply    to  the   Passover.     This   heretic,   who   is   nameless 
here,   lived  in   1753  A.D.     But  he  did  not  succeed  in  gaining  con- 
verts,  even   his  own   wife   deserting   his   teaching ;   and   the  priest 


v,  Introductory  Note. 

offers  a  prayer  for  his  restoration,  though  he  would  appear  to 
have  been  long  dead. 

5.  Concerning  the  Passover  when  the  date  falls  on  the  Sabbath.— 
The  answer  Is,  that,  in  this  case,  the  sacrifice  must  take  place  on 
Friday,  after  sunset.  To  this  answer  he  appends  proof  that  Mount 
Gerizlm  is  the  one  place  where  this  sacrifice  should  be  offered. 

«.  Concerning  the  forty  years  in  the  wilderness. — The  answer  is, 
that  the  ordinances  of  the  Passover,  Circumcision,  and  the  Sheki- 
eah  were  faithfully  observed. 

7.  Concerning  the  lasts  of  Moses.— The  answer  is,  that  Moses 
fasted  for  three  periods  of  forty  days  each,  and  not  merely  two 
such  periods. 

a  Concerning  the  writing  of  the  Commandments. — The  answer 
is,  that  the  Commandments  were  written  for  the  sake  of  verbal 
accuracy  and  permanent  preservation,  and  the  greater  reverence 
paid  to  a  certain  word  of  God,  which  might  have  been  lost  or  cor- 
rupted if  transmitted  orally. 

9.  Concerning   the  revelation  of  the  Torah. — The  answer,  given 
at  great  length  and  with  wide  variety  of  proof,  is,  that  the  com- 
plete To  rah  was  written  in  a  single  roll  by  the  hand  of  God,  and 
mnie  down  to  Moses  complete.    The  apparent  exceptions  are  noted, 
and  the  main  proposition  is  established  by  seven  proofs. 

10.  Concerning  the  two  stone  tablets. — The  answer  is,  that  the 
first  set  of  two  tablets  was  created  by  God  on  the  third  day  of 
creation.     The   inscription   was    in   horizontal    lines   and    in   uncial 
characters.    The  writing  miraculously  disappeared  when  Moses  broke 
the  stones;  the  breaking  of  them  if  the  writing  had  remained  would 
have  been  either  imi>ossible  or  a  great  sin.     The  second  set   Moses 
hewed  out,  but   God  wrote  on   them.     The  size   was  as   follows : 
length,  one  and  a   half  cubits ;  breadth,  three  fourths  of  a   cubit, 
combined  thickness,  two  and  one  half  cubits,  completely  filling  the 

ark. 

• 

11.  Concerning   the   tablets   of   testimony. — The   answer  is,   that 
the  atone  tablets  were  called  the  tablets  of  testimony  because  they 
were  a  living  testimony  and  covenant,  testifying  both  the  will  of 
God  and  the  promise  of  his  people. 

12.  Concerning  the  transcription  of  the  Torah. — The  answer  is, 
that  the  written  Torah  was  given  to  Moses  between  the  two  sets 
of  tablets  containing  the  Commandments,  and  was  copied  by  Moses 
and  the  priests.    Whether  the  original  copy,  written  directly  by  God, 
wan  ever  taken  out  of  the  tent,  where  Joshua  guarded  it,   is  dis- 
puted.    Some  hold  that  It  was  exhibited  once  in  seven  years.    The 
two  copies  made  by  Moses  were  all  that  were  commonly  seen. 


Introductory  Note.  vii 

13.  Concerning   the  Jordan. — The  answer  is,  that  the  Jordan  is 
the  river  of  Law.     There  the  manna  ceased,  and  the  Law  became 
fully  operative. 

14.  Concerning  the  shining  of  Moses'  face. — The  answer  is,  that 
this   phenomenon  —  the  more   remarkable   because  Moses   had  been 
fasting  for  forty  days  —  was  due  to  the  effulgence  of  the  angel  Ga- 
briel, who,  without  the  knowledge  of  Moses,  lent  him  his  own  pres- 
ence and  celestial   brightness. 

15.  Concerning  the  water  at  Rephidim. — The  answer  is,  that  the 
smiting  of  the  rock  was  an  authentication  of  Moses,  and  a  rebuke 
to  those  who  complained. 

16.  Concerning  the  battle  with   the  Amalekites. — The  answer  is, 
that  this  was  a  testimony  to  the  nations  of  the  favor  of  Jehovah 
for  his  people  Israel. 

17.  Concerning    the   reason    for   not    destroying    the    Amalekitea 
earlier. — In  order  that  Israel  might  know  that  its  strength  was  in 
Jehovah.      In    this   connection    the    High    Priest    goes    outside    the 
Torah,   and,  quoting  from  "  the  book  attributed  to  Joshua,"  refers 
to  the  stopping  of  the  sun  as  an  event  of  this  campaign.    The  bat- 
tle occurred  on  Friday,   he  explains,  and  the  standing  of  the  sun 
was  to  preserve  the  Sabbath  unbroken  by  the  battle. 

18.  Concerning   the  time  of  Jethro's   visit. — It  occurred   in   the 
second  year  of  the  Exodus. 

19.  Concerning    the    sons    of   Moses. — They    returned    with  their 
mother,  and  their  descendants  still  live,  nomads,   but   monotheists. 
In    this    connection    the   High    Priest   refutes    the    slander    against 
Moses,  that,  after  the  departure  of  Zipporah,  Moses  married  a  ne- 
gress.     Against  the  Jews,  to  whom  the  priest  attributes  this  slan- 
der, he  cries,   "May  God  fight   them   for  this!"     The  woman,  he 
says,  was  none  other  than  Zipporah  herself,  and  the  word  does  not 
mean  "  black  "  but  "  beautiful." 

20.  Concerning  the  heir  of  an  adulteress. — The  high  priest,  who 
condemns  her  to  death,  inherits  her  property. 

21.  Concerning  the  face  of  Laban. — Jacob  read  the  heart  of  La- 
ban  in  his  face,  and  knew  that  he  was  in  disfavor.     The  face  re- 
veals the  heart. 

22.  Concerning    Oaths. — The    High    Priest   classifies    these,    with 
some  elaboration,  into  oaths  permissible   and  prohibited ;    the  pro- 
hibited oaths  are  of  three  kinds  —  those  of  falsehood,   conjecture, 
or  triviality ;  and  the  permissible,  those  that  affirm  truthfully  and 
reverently. 

23.  Concerning  the  inheritance  of  a  woman  icho  marries  outside 


viii  Introductory  Note. 

the  tribe. — Her  Inheritance  remains  to  her  heirs  within  the  tribe. 
It  la  forfeited  so  far  as  she,  her  husband,  and  her  children  are 
concerned. 

24.  Concerning  the  u»e  of  rennet. — The  prohibition  of  seething 
a  kid  in  its  mother's  milk  had  not  been  carried,  so  far  as  the  High 
Priest  knows,  to  the  point  of  forbidding  the  use  of  the  kid's  stom- 
ach in  the  making  of  cheese.     When  attention  was  called  to  this, 
however,  he  investigated  the  matter;  and  while  he  could  find  no 
question  of  this  particular  in  the  literature  of  his  people,  it  seemed 
to  him  clear  that  the  use  of  rennet  was  a  violation  of  the  Law, 
so  he   has  prohibited   it,   establishing   a    new   precedent     In   this, 
however,  he  does  not  condemn  those  who  preceded  him,  as  what 
they  did  in  violation  of  the  Law  in  this  regard  was  done  inadvert- 
ently. 

25.  Concerning  the  abridgment    by  laymen  of  the  authority  of 
the  prietthood. — Some  laymen  having  insisted  that  there  should  be 
a  group  of  lay  associates  with  the  priests  to  pass  upon  questions 
where  the  rights  of  the  priesthood  are  involved,  the  High  Priest 
refutes  their  claim,  showing  that  the  laity  have  no  right  to  inter- 
meddle in  matters  of  this  character,  and  incidentally  showing  with 
how  great  respect  the  high  priest  himself  ought  to  be  treated. 

The  High  Priest  closes  by  hurling  two  questions  at  those  who 
oppose  him.  The  first  is,  that  they  will  explain  the  command  not 
to  remove  the  ancient  landmark.  The  second  is,  that  they  explain 
the  command  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  With 
these  two  arguments  —  one  against  the  method,  and  the  other 
against  the  spirit,  of  those  who  oppose  him  — the  High  Priest 
closes  the  book. 

WILLIAM  E.  BARTON. 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENLIGHTENMENT. 

IN   THE    NAME  OF  THE   MOST    MERCIFUL    GOD,    IN    WHOM    IS 

MY  TRUST.  At  some  previous  times,  on  many  occasions,  mem- 
bers of  my  own  tribe  have  asked  me  questions,  the  solution 
of  which  was  hidden  from  them,  because  of  the  scarcity  of 
books  to  guide  them.  I  have  answered  these  inquiries  from 
time  to  time  in  accordance  with  the  best  efforts  of  my  weak 
mind  and  poor  understanding.  I  have  wished  also  to  record 
the  substance  of  these  answers,  both  for  safekeeping,  and 
for  the  benefit  of  following  generations.  I  pray  God  for  his 
help.  Amen. 

Praise  be  to  God,  the  quintessence  of  Unity;  the  indivisible 

and  eternal ; 

To  him  who  is  far  above  either  mother  or  son; 
To  the   forgiver   of  sins  to   every   one  that   repents   with 

purity  of  conscience; 

To  him  who  overlooks  shortcomings,  and  consoles  the  dis- 
consolate hearts; 
To  him  who  alone  is  perfect  and  eternal,  and  liable  neither 

to  malady  nor  disease.  p 

He  is  eternal  and  immutable,  far  above  destruction,  or  any 

possible  damage. 
He  is  the  Everlasting,  who  is  too  exalted  to  be  represented 

either  by  image  or  likeness, 
And  is  far  above  measurement  or  drawing. 
He  is  described  by  the  most  exalted  names; 
To    him    belongs    the    ineffable    name    "  AHIH    ASHR 
AHIH." 


2  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

He  is  the  one  who  hears  and  beholds  all  things. 

Verily  he  hears  the  flowing  of  water  in  the  most  parched 

wilderness, 

And  sees  the  black  ants  in  the  darkest  recesses  of  the  rock. 
There  is  no  God  but  be ; 
None  but  he  is  worthy  to  be  worshiped. 
He  is  invisible,  eternal  in  his  eternity, 
And  Lord  of  all  the  heavens. 
Exalted  and  blessed  be  his  Name! 
He  is  praised  in  the  secret  and  in  the  open ; 
In  the  conscience  and  by  the  tongue; 
Inwardly  and  outwardly. 
He  is  the  only  judge, 

Who  will  avenge  himself  on  the  rebellious  on  the  last  day. 
Holy  be  his  great  name!    Amen. 

1.      THE    DURATION    OF    THE    PLAGUES    OF    EGYPT. 

I  have  been  asked,  concerning  the  wonders  which  took 
place  with  respect  to  Pharaoh  and  his  people,  How  long  did 
each  and  all  of  the  plagues  last  ?  The  answer  is  as  follows : — 

As  to  the  period  during  which  the  wonders  took  place  by 
the  hand  of  our  lord,  the  apostle  Moses  (upon  whom  be 
peace).1  while  he  was  in  Egypt,  it  was  that  of  two  months 
and  a  half. 

The  first  wonder  took  place  in  the  eleventh  month,  and  the 
last  took  place  in  the  first.  It  is  so  affirmed  by  our  traditions, 
handed  down  from  father  to  son,  and  is  so  accepted  and 
agreed  upon  by  the  people  of  Israel. 

We  believe  that  the  wonder  of  the  staff  that  turned  into 
a  serpent  lasted  less  than  a  single  day.  As  to  the  wonder 

'The  names  MOMS,  Abraham,  etc.,  are  uniformly  followed  by  an 
innrrlption  similar  to  this;  and  all  references  to  God  by  such  ejacu- 
lation* aft  "  May  He  be  exalted." 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  3 

of  blood,  it  lasted  seven  days ;  for  we  read :  "And  seven  days 
were  fulfilled  after  Jehovah x  had  smitten  the  river."  The 
period  of  the  wonder  of  frogs  lasted  two  days.  That  of  the 
plague  of  lice  is  not  mentioned.  Some  assert  that  the  plague; 
has  continued  on  Egypt  ever  since  that  day.2 

The  plague  of  flies  lasted  only  one  day,  and  left  them  on 
the  day  following.  The  miracle  of  the  destruction  of  the  cat- 
tle lasted  only  one  hour.  As  to  the  wonder  of  the  boils  with 
blains,  it  lasted  a  whole  week.  The  miracle  of  the  hail  lasted 
one  day ;  likewise  lasted  the  plague  of  locusts.  The  miracle 
of  darkness  lasted  three  days,  as  we  read :  "  For  a  period  of 
three  days  no  man  saw  his  brother."  The  period  of  the  kill- 
ing of  the  first-born  lasted  one  single  hour.  To  one  who 
might  make  the  statement  that  these  periods  would  not  make 
out  the  total  time  of  two  and  one  half  months,  as  previously 
indicated,  the  answer  is,  that  there  transpired  some  intervals 
of  time  between  one  miracle  and  another.  It  is  asserted  that 
the  time  divisions  were  uniform,  and  that  each  was  of  seven 
days,  including  the  period  of  each  miracle  and  the  interval ; 
for,  as  soon  as  the  miracle  of  blood  ceased,  the  Nile  let  loose 
on  them  its  frogs,  and  the  whole  earth  was  filled  with  them. 
However,  a  certain  amount  of  space  elapsed  after  each  mira- 
cle, that  the  two  apostles  might  have  time  to  carry  their 
message  to  Pharaoh  and  to  receive  his  reply  thereto,  and 
act  accordingly. 

Thus  the  whole  period  of  miracles  amounted  to  two 
months  and  a  half. 

And  God  possesses  the  best  kno^vledge  of  all  things. 

1  The  High  Priest  writes  the  name  Jehovah,  as  in  unpointed  He- 
brew, IHWH. 

'There  is  reason  to  agree  with  the  High  Priest  in  this  opinion. 


4  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

II.      THE  NUMBER  AND  CLASSIFICATION   OF  THE    MIRACLES. 

The  next  question  is  concerning  the  meaning  of  the  words 
"  Pharaoh  shall  not  listen  to  you." 

The  first  purpose  of  this  prediction  is  in  order  that  the 
words  of  God  may  be  confirmed ;  namely,  "  Pharaoh  shall 
not  listen  to  you,  and  I  will  produce  my  power  upon  the 
Egyptians."  It  was  God's  purpose  that  Pharaoh  should  know 
and  feel,  together  with  his  people,  these  signs  and  wonders 
while  he  was  still  hardened  in  his  unbelief. 

Secondly,  that  these  miracles  might  be  a  warning  to  those 
who  should  come  later  on.  Otherwise  it  would  have  been 
possible  for  God  to  destroy  Pharaoh  with  his  people  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye.  In  fact,  God  desired  by  this  prediction 
and  his  delay  to  show  the  greatness  of  his  apostle  and  the 
veracity  of  his  statements;  he  therefore  performed  these 
astounding  wonders  through  him  as  a  memorial  to  all  the 
generations,  in  order  that  the  one  who  reads  them,  and  med- 
itates on  them,  may  continue  in  his  fidelity  to  him  and  con- 
sider and  fear  the  treacherous  unbeliever.  He  made  us  know, 
therefore,  that  the  unwillingness  of  Pharaoh  to  hearken  unto 
his  two  messengers  resulted  in  what  he  said,  "  that  my  mira- 
cles may  be  multiplied  in  the  land  of  Egypt."  The  genuine- 
ness of  the  mission  of  these  two  men  was  proved;  for  we 
read :  "  and  Moses  and  Aaron  performed  all  these  miracles  " 
(Ex.  xi.  10).  There  exist  among  the  learned  men  some  who 
claim  that  these  miracles  amounted  to  ten  in  number,  thus 
omitting  from  their  reckoning  the  miracle  of  the  staff  which 
was  turned  into  a  serpent.  Some  say  that  the  latter  is  only 
a  sign,  and  not  a  miracle.  But  those  who  claim  that  the 
number  of  miracles  is  ten  do  unconsciously  prove  it  to  be 
twenty,  for,  according  to  them,  the  happening  of  the  miracle 
is  miraculous  and  its  disappearance  is  also  miraculous. 


The  Book  of^Enlightenment.  5 

It  is  more  correct,  however,  to  count  them  as  eleven  mira- 
cles, for  the  matter  of  the  staff  was  both  a  sign  and  a  miracle, 
according  to  the  statement  of  God :  "  Show  me  a  sign,"  or  a 
miracle  (Ex.  vii.  9)  ;  for  a  sign  is  in  itself  a  miracle.  This 
statement  is  proved  by  the  words  of  God,  which  have  already 
been  quoted  (Ex.  xi.  10),  which  verse  includes  all  the  mira- 
cles that  have  transpired.  The  same  is  affirmed  by  more 
than  one  of  God's  statements,  as  in  the  same  chapter  and 
verse,  "and  God  hardened  the  heart  of  Pharaoh;  he  neither 
hearkened  unto  them  nor  let  the  people  depart  from  his 
land." 

These  miracles  include  within  themselves  many  others,  the 
details  of  which  are  lengthy  and  numerous.  Here  are,  how- 
ever, some  of  the  principal  divisions. 

(1)  The    bringing    of    the    flies,    murrain,    and   the    kill- 
ing of  the  first-born.     These  are  the  direct  doings  of  God, 
without  the  instrumentality  of  the  two  apostles.     It  must  be 
understood,  however,   that  the  message   which   accompanied 
these  wonders  was  delivered  by  Moses,  who,  with  his  brother, 
knew  about  them. 

(2)  Those  which  were  done  by  God  by  the  hand  of  Moses 
alone,  while  Aaron  had  simply  to  notify  Pharaoh  with  the 
words  of  his  brother.     They  are  the  hail,  the  locusts,  and 
the  darkness.    These  were  done  simply  by  Moses,  and  Aaron 
had  part  only  in  the  intercession  which  accompanied  them. 

(3)  Those  which  God  performed  by  the  hand  of  Aaron, 
while  Moses  had  only  to  give  the  command.     They  are  the 
turning  of  the  staff  into  a  serpent,  the  miracle  of  frogs,  and 
that  of  lice. 

(4)  Those  in  which  both  brothers  took  part.     They  are 
the  turning  of  water  into  blood,  and  the  boils. 


6  Tkf  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

But  the  real  agent  of  them  all  was  indeed  God  (who  is 
highly  exalted).  He  only  used  these  two  apostles  to  prove 
the  truthfulness  of  their  message,  and  to  show  forth  their 
high  character  and  standing,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  world 
might  know,  as  we  have  already  stated.  The  line  found  in 
Ex.  xi.  9  does  simply  indicate  to  us  that  there  were  per- 
formed ten  wonders  on  Pharaoh;  and  that,  in  spite  of  their 
bitterness  and  hardship,  in  spite  of  the  tortures  which  he 
suffered  therefrom,  he  did  not  let  the  children  of  Israel  depart 
from  his  land  except  after  the  killing  of  the  first-born,  which 
wonder  makes  the  eleventh.  Compare  Ex.  vii.  3:  "And  I 
will  ....  multiply  my  signs  and  my  wonders  in  the  land  of 
Egypt.  But  Pharaoh  will  not  hearken  unto  you  until  I  lay 
my  hand  on  Egypt,  and  bring  out  my  hosts,  my  people  the 
children  of  Israel,  from  the  land  of  Egypt."  The  laying  of 
his  hand  does  not  refer  to  the  killing  of  the  first-born:  "And 
1  will  stretch  forth  my  hand,  and  smite  Egypt  with  all  my 
wonders  which  I  shall  perform  in  the  midst  of  it.  Thereupon 
he  shall  let  you  depart"  (Ex.  iii.  20).  This  verse  refers  to 
the  performance  of  all  the  wonders.  And  to  God  belongs  the 
best  knowledge. 

III.      THE  ORIGIN    AND   SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE    CEREMONIAL 

YEAR. 

have  been  asked,  concerning  the  passage  "  This  month 
.^hall  be  to  you  the  beginning  of  months"  (Ex.  xii.  2),  Did 
Israelites  know,  previous  to  this  statement,  that  this 
month  was  the  first  month  of  their  year,  or  did  they  begin 
so  to  look  on  it  afterwards?  The  following  is  in  answer. 
And  my  success  comes  from  God.  • 

Yes ;  they  knew  it  as  the  first  month  from  ancient  times ; 
for.  in  the  account  of  the  dehige  (Gen.  viii.  13),  we  read: 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  7 

"  In  the  six  hundredth  and  first  year  and  the  first  month,  on 
the  first  day  of  the  month,"  etc.  The  same  mention  is  given 
in  Ex.  xii.  2,  in  order  that  the  noble  and  exalted  nature  of  the 
month  might  be  shown,  and  that  we  might  know  that  the 
delivery  of  the  children  of  Israel  from  Egypt's  bondage  took 
place  thereon.  There  is,  however,  a  stronger  reason.  It  is 
called  the  first  month  of  the  year,  that  we  may  thereby  find 
with  exactness  the  various  times  of  the  year  which  we  are 
commanded  to  observe,  and  as  such  they  are  called  the  days 
of  fulfillment  of  righteousness.  During  the  same,  on  well- 
known  periods  we  have  our  festival  days.  Compare  the  ref- 
erence given  in  Ex.  xii.  3,  "  Speak  to  the  congregation  of 
Israel,  saying,  that  on  the  tenth  of  this  month,  they  shall  take 
for  themselves  each  a  sheep,"  etc.  Read  as  far  as  the  sixth 
verse,  wherein  it  is  said,  "  and  it  shall  be  kept  by  you  until 
the  fourteenth  of  this  month."  From  these  references  we 
conclude  that  this  month  was  the  first,  and  with  it  the  year 
begins ;  that  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  same  month  sacrificial 
offerings  are  to  be  chosen  and  kept  till  the  close  of  the  four- 
teenth day.  The  sacrifices  should  take  place  on  the  evening 
of  the  night  of  the  fifteenth  of  the  month.  Beginning  with 
that  day  up  to  the  twenty-first,  unleavened  bread  must  be 
eaten  for  seven  days ;  and  that  day,  which  is  the  twenty-first, 
must  be  spent  in  the  service  of  God.  In  this  manner  the 
arrangement  of  festival  days  was  made  out,  each  according 
to  his  time  and  month,  as  their  order  is  given  in  the  Book  of 
the  Law ;  and  that  is  why  the  month  is  called  the  first. 

As  to  the  command  that  the  celebration  of  the  Passover  on 
its  proper  times  should  take  place  to  the  end  of  generations, 
it  is  because  the  offerings  of  Passover  during  the  days  of 
Darkness  are  equivalent  to  those  of  the  entire  year.  They 
are  equivalent  to  the  peace  offerings.  To  continue  to  cele- 


8  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

brate  the  same  will  lead  us  to  the  days  of  the  appearance  of 
God's  Pleasure  and  the  coming  of  the  second  prophet.  The 
mystery  which  affirms  God's  Pleasure,  falling  as  it  does  in 
this  month,  will  doubtless  be  approved  to  us  that  the  return 
of  God's  Pleasure  will  be  during  the  same  month,  namely, 
the  first.  As  to  the  command  of  God  in  reference  to  the 
celebration  of  the  Passover  in  its  time,  one  is  referred  to  Ex. 
xii.  17 :  "  Ye  shall  observe  and  fulfill  this  day  in  your  gener- 
ations as  an  eternal  ordinance  " ;  "Ye  shall  keep  this  com- 
mand as  an  eternal  ordinance  to  thee  and  to  thy  children  " 
(ver.  24).  Again:  "Thou  shall  keep  this  ordinance  in  its 
time  from  year  to  year"  (Ex.  xiii.  10).  Compare  also  Deut. 
xvi.  1 :  "  Keep  the  month  of  Abib."  Thus  it  appears  that 
the  month  of  Abib  is  the  first  month,  corresponding  to  April. 
The  keeping  of  this  month  is  simply  for  giving  praise  and 
thanks  to  God  for  having  saved  them  from  the  servitude  of 
the  Egyptians.  They  should  also  continue  to  mention  the 
reason  for  God's  action  in  bringing  them  out  of  Egypt.  See, 
therefore,  Deut.  xvi.  12 :  "  and  remember  also  that  thou  wert 
a  slave  in  the  land  of  Egypt."  As  to  the  usefulness  of  cele- 
brating this  ordinance  from  year  to  year  as  the  ages  pass,  it 
consists  in  blotting  out  the  sins  of  each  year  as  long  as  it  is 
kept  on  the  first  month,  which  is  April,  when  occur  the  re- 
turn of  God's  Pleasure  and  the  reappearance  and  reestablish- 
ment  of  the  Shekinah  on  Mount  Gerizim.  As  to  the  time 
and  place,  both  are  proved  by  the  word  of  God.  The  She- 
kinah was  established  in  the  wilderness  by  Moses  on  the  first 
month,  and  when  our  lord  Joshua  (upon  whom  be  peace)  set 
it  up  on  Mount  Gerizim,  it  was  on  the  first  month.  Its  return 
will  be  by  the  will  of  God  on  the  first  month.  And  that  is  the 
reason  why  God  commanded  and  declared  the  keeping  of  its 
As  to  the  place,  it  shall  be  in  the  chosen  place,  the 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  9 

place  whose  selection  was  revealed  after  their  entrance  into 
the  Holy  Land.  No  other  place  shall  be  substituted  for  it: 
only  in  it  and  within  its  boundaries.  In  proof  of  the  same, 
compare  Deut.  xvi.  5 :  "It  shall  not  be  lawful  unto  thee  to 
sacrifice  the  Passover  within  any  of  the  towns,"  etc. ;  and : 
"  But  it  must  be  in  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy  God  has 
chosen  that  his  name  may  dwell  there.  There  shalt  thou 
sacrifice  the  Passover  in  the  evening  at  sunset,"  etc.  This 
place  is  Mount  Gerizim.  And  God  knows  all  things. 

IV.      THE    TIME    OF    THE    INSTITUTION    OF   THE    PASSOVER. 

Were  the  apostles  Moses  and  Aaron  given  the  ordinance  of 
the  Passover,  and  the  manner  of  its  performance,  on  the  first 
day  of  the  first  month,  or  on  some  other  of  its  days  previous 
to  the  fourteenth  ? 

There  is  a  variety  of  opinions  given  by  the  learned  men. 
Some  claim  that  the  probability  is  that  the  command  was 
given  on  the  first  of  the  month,  with  the  provision  that  on 
the  tenth  they  should  choose  the  offerings  and  keep  them  un- 
der surveillance  until  the  evening  of  the  fourteenth.  During 
these  days  the  offerings  would  have  been  washed  daily,  and 
cleansed  and  purified  from  all  the  blemishes  and  forms  of 
animal  filth  until  the  Egyptians  were  assured  that  Israel  was 
ready  to  offer  them  to  his  God.  Their  intention  was  revealed 
during  this  period  of  four  days,  and  the  Egyptians  could  not 
pretend  that  the  Israelites  had  sacrificed  their  offerings  in 
a  concealed  manner.  There  are  others  who  claim  that  the 
command  was  given  by  God  only  on  the  fourteenth  of  April, 
on  the  day  known  to  us  as  Alfajool.  In  proof  of  the  same  com- 
pare Ex.  xi.  4 :  "In  the  midst  of  the  night  I  will  go  out  into 
the  midst  of  the  land  of  Egypt."  Pharaoh,  who  realized  that 
every  threatening  made  to  him  by  the  apostle  Moses  (upon 


10  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

whom  be  peace)  would  be  fulfilled,  placed  guards  around 
his  own  first-born  prince,  lest  he  should  perish  with  the 
first-born  of  the  Egyptians.  Naturally  he  commanded  them 
to  watch  over  his  son  without  remittance,  and  not  to  sleep 
throughout  the  whole  night.  The  guards  were  probably  men 
of  trust,  famous  for  their  courage  and  daring,  and  they 
obeyed  the  command  of  Pharaoh  with  all  diligence.  While 
they  were  in  the  most  careful  act  of  watchfulness  over  the 
first-born  of  Pharaoh,  behold  the  latter  was  dead  in  the  midst 
of  them,  while  they  were  around  him  and  without  having 
noticed  any  one  entering  among  them.  These  words  belong 
to  the  high  priest  Merkah  (may  God's  pleasure  be  upon  him). 
Amen. 

Now  if  any  one  should  say  that,  if  God's  command  was 
given  on  the  fourteenth  of  the  month,  he  would  not  have 
said,  also,  "on  the  tenth  of  this  month,"  in  reply  to  this 
question  it  must  be  said  that  the  words  of  God  here  form  a 
part  of  the  ordinance  of  the  Passover,  and  they  were  a  com- 
mand to  those  of  the  coming  generations,  for  he  said  also: 
"  That  which  remaineth  of  it  until  morning  shall  be  burned 
in  fire  "  (Ex.  xii.  10)  ;  while  they  did  not  remain  in  Egypt, 
but  rather  got  up  early  and  left  in  all  haste. 

Now  the  reconciliation  of  this  command  of  the  Passover 
in  a  year  when  it  shall  fall  on  the  Sabbath  will  be  given  in 
its  time,  if  God  will  help. 

The  learned  elder,  of  blessed  memory,  Ishmael  Arrabjee, 
mentioned  in  his  book  named  "  Hitoroth,"  —  that  is  to  say, 
Legislation,  —  informs  us  that  the  command  of  the  Lord  to 
the  two  apostles  took  place  on  the  day  known  to  us  as  the 
•lay  of  Alfajool,  while  they  were  still  in  Egypt  on  the  night 
of  the  Passover. 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  ,11 

Thus  our  learned  men  differ.  And  God  possesses  the  best 
knowledge. 

This  book  became  extinct  in  the  twelfth  century,  because 
none  took  care  of  it  in  those  days.  Part  of  it  is  still  with  the 
writer,  and  another  part  with  some  of  the  Samaritan  people. 
If  God  will  grant  me  the  required  years  I  shall  gather  what 
can  be  found  according  to  my  ability.  It  contains  Toroot 
and  Mosoot,  and  possesses  some  fine  interpretations.  These 
words  belong  to  my  uncle,  the  generous  and  literary  sheik 
Shamsu — Deen  Sadkah.  May  God  grant  him  forgiveness; 
for  it  is  a  very  interesting  book.  And  the  knozdedge  of  the 
unknown  belongs  to  God. 

Remarks  concerning  the  Ordinance  of  the  Passover. 

Our  people  who  dwell  in  the  villages  and  countries  which 
are  more  or  less  remote  from  the  Chosen  Place  used  to  sac- 
rifice the  offerings  of  the  Passover  where  they  lived.  We 
know  also,  from  verified  reports,  that  in  those  days  a  party 
that  belonged  to  the  Chosen  Place  used  to  burn  large  .fires 
upon  the  top  of  Mount  Gerizim,  that  those  living  in  the  ad- 
jacent countries,  such  as  Askelon,  and  Caesarea,  and  other 
towns,  might  see  the  same  and  act  accordingly.  Those  who 
came  and  sacrificed  in  the  Chosen  Place  were  permitted  to 
sacrifice  either  sheep  or  oxen,  but  those  who  sacrificed  in 
other  places  were  not  permitted  to  sacrifice,  except  sheep. 
But  in  our  generation,  and  in  past  ones  beginning  from  a 
period  of  three  hundred  years  ago,  it  has  been  agreed  that 
offerings  shall  be  made  nowhere  except  on  the  Chosen  Place, 
or  if  the  mountain  itself  should  ever  become  impossible,  then 
on  its.  slope  or  in  places  as  near  to  it  as  practicable. 

This  is  to  harmonize  with  the  saying  of  God  in  Deut.  xvi. 
5 :  "It  shall  not  be  lawful  unto  thee  to  sacrifice  the  Passover 


12  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

within  any  of  thy  gates,  [that  is,  in  towns,]  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  has  given  thee,  but  only  in  the  Place  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  has  chosen,  that  his  name  might  dwell  therein.  There 
shalt  thou  sacrifice  the  Passover." 

Again,  the  custom  has  not  varied  from  ancient  times 
until  the  present  (that  is,  from  the  period  of  two  hundred 
years  ago  until  now),  that  only  sheep,  and  none  else,  shall 
be  used  for  sacrifices.  In  our  days  it  has  been  agreed  to 
choose  only  the  sheep  of  white  color,  because  that  is  the 
color  of  the  best  and  the  noblest  of  the  sheep.  He  who  lives 
in  any  other  place  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  Chosen 
Place  must  hasten  to  the  Chosen  Place,  and  there  sacrifice 
the  Passover.  Should  he  be  late  in  coming  without  having 
any  legal  cause  to  delay  him,  he  commits  a  great  sin,  and 
becomes  liable  to  what  God  ordered  in  Num.  ix.  13 :  "  If  a 
man  be  clean,  and  does  not  make  a  journey,  and  has  failed 
to  sacrifice  the  Passover,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from  among 
the  people ;  for  he  has  not  sacrificed  to  God  in  season.  That 
man  shall  bear  his  own  sins."  If  a  man  asks,  How  can  a 
man  bear  his  own  sins  if  he  has  been  cut  off  from  his  own 
people?  and,  Did  he  not  pay  for  his  sins  by  having  been 
killed?  the  answer  is,  that  since  his  action  was  intentional, 
his  sins  will  be  counted  against  him  till  the  day  of  vengeance, 
when,  in  the  day  of  judgment  and  account,  he  shall  be  com- 
pelled to  render  an  account  of  his  sins  and  shall  be  punished 
for  them.  His  killing  became  necessary  both  because  he  has 
offended  his  Lord,  and  also  in  order  that  others  in  this  world 
may  be  led  to  consider  and  not  transgress  .likewise. 

Questions  of  this  character  are  numerous  in  the  Law. 
Among  the  conditions  of  the  Passover  is  that  the  sacrifices 
shall  be  chosen  on  the  tenth  of  the  month  and  kept  with  dili- 
gence until  the  time  of  their  offering,  according  to  the  com- 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  13 

mand  of  God  in  Ex.  xii.  3,  etc. :  "  On  the  tenth  of  this  month 
they  shall  take  for  themselves  every  man  a  lamb  according  to 
the  houses  of  their  fathers,  a  lamb  for  every  house;  and  if 
the  house  be  too  small  for  a  lamb,  the  family  shall  join  in 
company  with  its  neighbor  who  lives  nearest  to  his  house 
according  to  the  numbers  of  souls,"  etc.,  to  the  line  where  it 
is  said,  "  the  same  shall  be  kept  until  the  fourteenth  day  of 
the  month."  During  these  five  days  the  sacrifices  must  be 
examined,  and  the  condition  of  the  animals  found  out,  lest 
they  have  same  of  the  objections  to  disqualify  them,  such 
as  blisters,  which  is  characteristic  of  the  sheep,  or  a  redness 
of  eye,  or  a  possibly  fatal  disease.  Their  hoofs  must  be 
cleansed ;  especially  those  parts  which  grow  within  the  hoofs, 
for  they  are  liable  to  much  dirt,  and  whatever  defects  they 
may  be  found  to  possess  disqualify  them  from  being  sacri- 
ficed. A  sheep  is  particularly  disqualified  by  such  a  blemish 
as  a  break  in  the  leg  or  defect  in  sight.  All  their  members 
should  be  cleansed  from  dirt;  for  they  tread  upon  the  defiled 
things  while  walking  in  the  streets  and  highways.  Occasion- 
ally there  grow  between  their  hoofs  diseased  parts  which 
disqualify  them. 

Every  Israelite  must  be  taxed  according  to  his  share  with 
the  cost  of  those  sacrifices  to  fulfill  the  command  of  the  Lord, 
"According  to  their  souls'  price  " ;  and  this  command  includes 
all,  the  man  and  the  woman  and  the  child.  Any  one  who  is 
not  taxed,  and  does  not  pay  out  of  his  own  material  substance, 
cannot  have  sacrifices.  But  he  who  is  too  poor,  and  does  not 
possess  anything  in  this  world,  may  serve  in  the  preparation 
of  the  sacrifices,  and  substitute  his  labor  for  money,  and  thus 
make  up  what  he  would  have  been  taxed  as  his  share.  And 
if  a  man  lives  with  a  family,  and  has  always  been  looked 
upon  as  a  member  of  it,  he  may  pay  the  taxes  that  will  cover 


14  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

all  its  members,  whether  they  be  wife,  child,  or  servants,  in 
accordance  with  the  words  of  God  found  in  Ex.  xii.  4:  "If 
the  house,  however,  has  no  one  to  pay  the  full  price,  it  may 
join  with  its  nearest  neighbor,  and  the  price  be  divided  in 
accordance  with  the  number  of  those  who  partake  of  the  sac- 
rifice." This,  of  course,  was  in  the  days  of  the  large  growth 
and  multitude  of  the  Israelites,  but  when  their  conditions 
changed  for  the  worse,  and  their  number  decreased  exceed- 
ingly, a  number  of  them,  large  or  small,  would  agree  and 
undertake  to  procure  their  sacrifices  as  they  saw  fit.  But 
nowadays,  on  account  of  our  present  condition,  and  on  ac- 
count of  our  small  number,  we  make  a  common  fund  of 
the  little  we  possess.  We  all  gather  together  into  one  com- 
pany and  have  one  furnace,  and  this  has  been  done  for  nearly 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years.  This  we  do  because  of 
our  weakness  and  ill  prosperity,  and  on  account  of  the  days 
of  darkness.  It  is  not  permissible  for  any  one  to  sacrifice 
except  with  his  own  relations.  Of  course  the  married  woman, 
wherever  she  is,  will  sacrifice  with  her  husband  and  will  eat 
with  him. 

Among  other  ordinances  is  one  that,  on  the  fourteenth 
day,  all  the  people  of  Israel  should  cleanse  their  houses  and 
dwelling  places,  and  clear  them  out  entirely  of  leaven,  ac- 
cording to  Ex.  xxiii.  18 :  "  Do  not  offer  thy  sacrifices  with 
leavened  bread,  and  let  no  fat  of  the  Passover  remain  until 
morning."  Therefore,  the  people  of  Israel  agreed  not  to  eat 
leavened  bread  on  that  day.  Moreover,  in  order  that  any 
leaven  previously  eaten  may  have  been  digested  thoroughly 
in  the  body,  they  eat  not  leavened  bread  on  the  fourteenth, 
lest  they  may  violate  the  words  of  the  Lord  by  eating  it  for 
eight  days.  Compare  Ex.  xii.  18:  "By  an  ordinance  for- 
t-ver  yc  shall  eat  unleavened  bread  in  the  first  month  on  the 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  15 

fourteenth  day  at  even  until  the  twenty-first  at  even."     Ac- 
cording to  this  command,  seven  days  only  must  be  completed. 

Another  condition  is,  that  none  of  the  people  of  Israel 
should  offer  sacrifices  unless  he  be  pure  in  body,  void  of  all 
defilements  and  their  causes.  He  must  not  have  the  least 
reason  of  being  defiled. 

Another  condition  is,  that  the  whole  people  should  gather 
together,  according  to  Ex.  xii.  6 :  "And  the  whole  company 
of  the  children  of  Israel  should  kill  it  at  evening,"  that  they 
all  may  witness  the  offerings  of  God,  and  all  may  remember 
his  favors  upon  them  and  upon  their  forefathers,  and  the 
signs  and  wonders  which  he  performed  for  them,  their  de- 
livery from  servitude. 

This    remembrance    is    necessary.     Compare    Ex.    xii.    14 : 
"  It  shall  be  a  memorial  unto  you  this  clay."     Compare  also . 
what  Moses  said,  "Remember  also  this  day"   (Ex.  xiii.  3). 
Much  can  be  said  in  reference  to  these  commands. 

During  the  celebration  of  the  Passover  the  people  must 
indulge  greatly  in  praises,  in  exultations  and  glorifications, 
and  must  not  cease  doing  so  throughout  the  whole  night;  for 
it  is  called  the  Night  of  God.  Compare,  with  others,  Ex.  xii. 
42 :  "  This  night  belongs  to  God ;  it  shall  be  kept  by  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  in  all  their  generations." 

Another  condition  is,  that  the  offering  should  be  sacri- 
ficed at  evening,  not  before  and  not  after.  It  must  be  done 
as  the  sun  goes  under,  that  it  may  have  a  well-defined  de- 
marcation. As  to  our  custom  when  the  Passover  falls  on 
the  Sabbath,  it  will  be  explained  later  on,  by  God's  Word. 

Another  condition  is,  that  the  sacrifice  which  is  offered 
must  be  examined  internally,  lest  it  may  have  broken  bones, 
or  weak  lungs,  or  any  internal  disease. 

Another   condition    is,   that   all   its   fat,    including   the   two 


16  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

kidneys,  must  be  taken  away,  for  if  any  of  these  remain 
with  it  it  cannot  be  offered.  The  right  shoulder,  together 
with  the  fat,  must  be  removed,  before  it  can  be  broiled  with 
the  meat. 

Another  condition  is,  that  it  must  be  broiled  thoroughly 
in  fire.  There  is  no  question  about  the  verse  in  Deut.  xvi.  7. 
It  does  not  imply  that  the  meat  should  be  cooked  with  water, 
for  the  command  has  already  been  given  that  it  should  not 
be  eaten  raw  or  boiled.  See  Ex.  xii.  8  and  9 :  "Do  not  eat 
any  part  of  it  raw  or  cooked  with  water." 

Another  condition  is,  that  it  must  be  salted  according  to 
the  common  taste.  It  must  not  be  eaten  without  salt.  Com- 
pare Lev.  ii.  13 :  "  With  all  thine  oblations  thou  shall  offer 
salt." 

Another  condition  is,  that  it  must  be  eaten  in  the  middle 
of  the  night,  and  all  those  who  partake  of  it  must  do  so  in 
the  guise  of  men  who  are  about  to  go  on  a  journey  and  are 
prepared  for  travel.  They  must  be  girded  in  the  middle; 
must  have  their  leather  shoes  on  their  feet,  and  their  staves 
in  their  hands,  according  to  Ex.  xii.  11 :  "  Thus  shall  ye  eat 
it.  Your  loins  must  be  girded,  your  sandals  must  be  on  your 
feet  and  your  staves  in  your  hands."  In  other  words,  in  eat- 
ing it  the  triumph  and  joy  of  the  Exodus  may  be  celebrated, 
for  it  is  a  Passover  and  a  salvation  from  the  oppression  in 
which  our  forefathers  found  themselves :  "  Ye  shall  eat  it 
greedily,  for  it  is  a  Passover  to  God."  Thus  they  would 
remember  the  departure  of  the  forefathers  from  Egypt.  They 
ate  it  while  on  the  point  of  departure,  and  they  ate  it  with 
greediness,  on  account  of  the  anxiety  caused  by  the  impend- 
ing journey :  "  For  haste  hast  thou  left  Egypt :  that  thou  may- 
est  remember  thy  departure  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  all  the 
days  of  thy  life"  (Deut.  xvi.  3). 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  17 

Another  condition  is,  that  it  must  be  eaten  with  unleavened 
bread  and  bitter  herbs.  As  to  the  eating-  of  it  with  unleav- 
ened bread,  it  is  to  remind  them  of  the  state  of  oppression 
and  poverty  and  difficulty  in  which  they  were  while  in  Egypt; 
for  unleavened  bread  was  called,  in  another  place,  lehem  eneh, 
that  is,  "the  bread  of  the  poor."  For  often  the  poor,  and 
those  on  the  point  of  a  long  journey  on  account  of  their  pov- 
erty, haste,  or  hunger,  would  take  the  flour,  and  knead  it 
and  bake  it  all  at  once,  and  eat  it  in  haste  without  waiting 
for  it  to  be  leavened.  The  traveler  may  do  likewise  from  his 
haste  or  the  anxiety  which  he  feels.  He  may  become  im- 
patient should  he  wait  until  it  becomes  leavened.  But  God 
possesses  the  best  knoivledge. 

As  to  the  eating  of  bitter  herbs,  it  is  that  they  may  re- 
member also  the  bitter  lives  which  their  forefathers  lived,  the 
oppressive  servitude  and  the  excessive  tasks  with  which  they 
were  cumbered.  As  to  the  making  of  unleavened  bread,  it 
must  be  done  with  all  carefulness  lest  any  foreign  matter  be 
mixed  with  it.  It  must  be  selected  from  the  whole  amount 
of  wheat  chosen  for  the  season.  It  must  be  cleansed,  es- 
pecially at  its  grinding  at  the  mill;  it  must  not  be  gathered 
up  out  of  the  wheat  which  has  been  threshed  by  oxen,  for 
while  they  are  drawing  the  threshing  instrument  they  might 
defile  it  by  their  urine  and  dung.  Compare  Lev.  xxii.  25 : 
"  Neither  from  the  hand  of  a  foreigner  shall  ye  offer  the 
bread  of  your  God  of  any  of  these,  because  their  corruption 
is  in  them ;  there  is  a  blemish  in  them ;  they  shall  not  be  ac- 
cepted for  you."  Now  if  there  is  no  wheat  of  which  the 
conditioned  portion  can  be  taken ;  if  there  be  no  Israelitish 
farmers  from  whom  the  required  amount  can  be  taken,  ears 
of  wheat  must  be  picked  at  the  time  of  harvest  and  pre- 


18  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

served  until  it  can  be  prepared  for  the  making  of  unleavened 
bread. 

Another  condition  is,  that  the  lamb  must  be  roasted  en- 
tirely as  a  whole,  with  its  head  and  its  legs,  without  any 
part  being  cut  off,  except  the  right  shoulder,  which  is  re- 
moved that  the  same  may  be  eaten  afterward,  being  the 
property  of  the  priests,  the  sons  of  Levi.  Compare  Ex.  xii. 
9 :  "  Its  head  with  its  legs  and  the  inwards  thereof." 

Another  condition  is,  that  it  must  not  be  taken  out  from 
the  place  where  it  is  cooked;  it  must  not  be  taken  from  one 
place  to  another :  "  Thou  shalt  not  carry  forth  aught  of  the 
flesh  'brought  out  of  the  house'"  (Ex.  xii.  46),  lest  it  may 
undergo  some  disqualification,  or  lest  it  may  be  changed.  No 
bone  of  it  shall  be  broken.  "  Neither  shall  ye  break  the 
bones  thereof." 

Another  condition  is,  that  no  foreigner  shall  touch  it,  and 
no  foreigner  shall  eat  of  it  except  him  who  possesses  the  re- 
ligion of  Israel  and  has  been  circumcised  and  purified.  If 
a  slave  bought  by  money  has  been  converted,  and  has  taken 
up  our  religion  and  has  been  circumcised,  he  may  eat  of  it ; 
he  may  sacrifice  it  as  any  of  the  Israelites,  according  to  Ex. 
xii.  44 :  "  But  every  man's  servant  wh<3  is  bought  for  money, 
when  thou  hast  circumcised  him,  then  shall  he  eat  thereof." 

Now  as  to  strangers,  our  Law  says  (in  the  same  chapter, 
ver.  48)  :  "When  a  stranger  shall  sojourn  with  thee  and  will 
keep  the  Passover  of  Jehovah,  if  he  be  a  male,  let  him  be 
circumcised ;  then  he  shall  be  as  one  born  in  the  land."  This 
statement  includes  any  one,  whether  he  be  stranger  or  not, 
who  has  taken  up  this  religion  and  introduced  himself  under 
the  ordinances  of  the  Law.  He  who  does  that,  let  it  be  an- 
nounced to  him  that  his  standing  before  God  and  in  the  house 
of  the  Lord  is  like  the  standing  of  the  Israelite.  For  he  said 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  19 

in  the  same  chapter,  "  He  shall  be  like  a  native  in  the  land, 
for  he  has  submitted  himself  and  restrained  his  passions  unto 
the  will  of  God.  Let  him  therefore  be  fruitful." 

Another  condition  is,  that  its  fat  must  be  burned,  and 
whatever  fatness  may  be  found  in  the  head  and  in  the  shoul- 
der, and  whatever  may  remain  of  the  flesh  and  bones  and 
members,  without  leaving  a  particle  of  it,  in  accordance  with 
the  command  of  God  in  Ex.  xii.  10 :  "  Leave  nothing  of  it 
until  the  morning." 

Every  Israelite  must  cease  working,  that  he  may  have  a 
part  in  the  offering  of  the  sacrifice.  The  least  work  must  not 
be  done,  and  he  who  excludes  the  preparation  of  food  in  gen- 
eral, claiming  that  it  can  be  done  on  the  day  of  the  Passover, 
he  has  surely  ignored  the  word  of  God,  for  if  any  work  were 
intended  besides  that  of  the  Passover  the  word  "  only  "  or 
"  singly "  would  not  have  been  employed.  For  this  work 
does  surely  refer  to  the  Passover  only,  and  therefore  the 
taking  part  in  the  Passover  is  the  only  thing  that  can  be 
done  at  the  prescribed  time,  in  accordance  with  the  command 
of  God.  If,  however,  the  objector  of  these  explanations  would 
suggest  that  God,  in  saying  "  for  every  soul,"  meant  that 
whatever  may  be  eateVi  may  be  prepared  on  the  day  of  the 
Passover,  but  must  not  be  eaten  except  by  the  Israelite  who 
is  pure,  the  answer  is,  that  God  had  this  command  only  for 
the  children  of  Israel,  and  if  he  had  simply  said,  "  Whatever 
may  be  eaten  by  every  soul  may  be  prepared,"  we  might  be 
convinced.  But  since  he  added  a  conditional  word,  which  is 
Ibdo,  namely,  "  only  "  or  "  singly,"  and  concluded  his  saying 
by  the  word  Ikm,  that  is,  "  to  you,"  it  follows  that  he  meant 
the  Passover,  and  that  they  alone  were  responsible  for  its 
observance.  And  to  God  belongs  the  highest  wisdom. 

If,  however,  some  one  may  say  that  the  preparation  of  the 


20  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

Passover  is  simply  limited  to  a  day,  but  not  the  preparation 
of  other  food  God  meant  for  two  days,  namely,  that  day  of 
the  Passover  and  the  day  of  the  Feast  of  Unleavened  Bread, 
he  is  surely  mistaken;  for  the  saying  of  Jehovah  referred 
only  to  the  day  of  the  Passover.  Yes,  God  said  that  the 
least  doing  must  not  be  done  in  them,  namely,  in  those  two 
days,  but  he  made  an  additional  remark  in  Ex.  xii.  16,  which 
surely  refers  to  the  Passover  only.  The  duty  of  every  Israel- 
ite should  be  to  be  diligent  and  watchful  lest  something  dis- 
qualifying might  happen  to  his  sacrifice. 

Another  condition  is,  that  early  in  the  morning  the  whole 
host  shall  rise  and  depart  to  their  places  and  homes.  Com- 
pare Deut.  xvi.  7 :  "  Then  in  the  morning  go  to  and  leave  for 
thy  tents."  The  duty  of  every  Israelite  is,  that  he  should 
make  known  the  joy  of  the  Passover  in  his  home,  and  should 
bless  God  for  the  salvation  of  his  forefathers  from  their  ene- 
mies; and  for  the  standing,  the  high  standing,  which  is  only 
his;  and  for  the  help  by  which  he  has  been  enabled  to  fulfill 
his  Passover  duty,  especially  in  the  days  of  darkness ;  for  the 
absence  of  harm  done  him  by  his  enemies;  and  for  the  lib- 
rrty  given  him  in  preparing  his  sacrifice.  Such  things  must 
be  attributed  to  God's  mercy  and  favor,  and  should  be  looked 
upon  as  the  best  guide  to  submission  to  this  will.  It  is  in- 
deed a  marvelous  thing  that,  during  the  observance  of  the 
ordinance,  none  thinks  of  harming  the  Israelite,  whether  it 
be  his  body  or  his  property.  It  is  in  assurance  of  the  ful- 
fillment of  God's  saying  in  Ex.  xxxiv.  24 :  "  No  man  shall 
desire  thy  land  when  thou  goest  up  to  appear  before  the 
Lord  thy  God."  Let  the  Israelite  watch  over  this  holy  day 
and  cease  from  all  works,  in  accordance  with  Ex.  xii.  16 : 
"And  the  first  day  there  shall  be  to  you  a  holy  convocation, 
and  on  the  seventh  day  a  holy  convocation ;  no  manner  of 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  21 

work  shall  be  done  in  them."  This  command  is,  of  course, 
to  include  the  Passover  and  the  seventh  day,  which  is  the 
first  of  unleavened  bread,  "  Save  that  which  every  man  may 
eat,  that  alone  may  be  done  of  you."  This  exception  is  made, 
referring  to  the  Passover  sacrifice  and  its  preparation;  and 
whatever  may  be  needed  to  attend  to  the  same  is  allowable. 
No  other  labor  is  permissible,  and  the  Jewish  people  are  in 
error  in  their  claim,  for  they  have  taken  this  verse  as  intended 
for  every  feast  in  which  they  allow  the  cooking  of  all  kinds 
of  food.  They  have  abandoned  the  ordinance,  and  perform 
things  which  are  not  mentioned  in  the  holy  Torah.  They  per- 
form, however,  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread,  but  only  in 
part.  The  Gentiles  claim  that  the  Jews  used  blood,  human 
blood,  in  their  unleavened  bread,  which  is,  I  believe,  incor- 
rect, and  the  report  of  a  slanderer,  for  blood  is  a  defiling 
thing  with  them  as  it  is  with  us.  And  to  God  belongs  th" 
best  wisdom. 

But.  as  to  the  ordinance  of  the  Passover,  the  Jews  have- 
entirely  neglected  it,  although  it  is  an  ordinance  given  to  all 
generations  forever.  Compare  Ex.  xii.  17 :  "  Ye  shall  keep 
this  ordinance,  for  on  this  very  day  I  have  brought  your  hosts 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  Ye  shall  observe  and  fulfill  this 
day  throughout  your  generations."  Let  the  reader  answer, 
What  other  day  than  on  the  day  of  the  Passover  did  God 
bring  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt?  And  there  can  be 
no  greater  testimony  of  this  fact  than  this  line  in  Ex.  xii.  17 : 
"  Ye  shall  observe  this  ordinance." 

It  is  plain  enough  that  the  words  above  refer  to  the  Pass- 
over, and  that  all  works  on  that  day  are  unlawful,  with  the 
exception  of  the  work  which  concerns  the  preparation  of  the 
Passover.  For  the  command  as  to  the  prohibition  of  work  on 
these  two  days  was  given  before  that  of  the  Sabbath ;  and  as 


22  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

the  praiseworthy  and  highly  exalted  God  wished  to  arrange 
for  the  rest  of  the  annual  feasts,  he  began  with  the  com- 
mands concerning  the  feast  of  the  Passover  and  ended  with 
that  of  the  eighth  feast.  He  informed  us  that  the  standing 
of  these  feasts  is  as  high  as  that  of  the  Sabbath ;  for  he  often 
implied  the  Sabbath  in  mentioning  the  other  festival  days. 
Compare  Lev.  xxiii.  2 :  "  The  festival  days  of  the  Lord,  yc 
shall  call  convocations  of  holiness,  these  are  festival  days." 
Such  saying  includes  both  the  festival  days  and  the  Sabbath, 
lor  he  has  coupled  the  Sabbath  with  the  festival  days :  "Six 
days  shalt  thou  do  work,  but  on  the  Sabbath  there  is  a  com- 
plete cessation  of  labor,  a  holy  convocation.  The  least  work 
ye  shall  not  do;  it  is  a  rest  day  in  your  dwellings."  Then  he 
began  mentioning  the  festival  days  in  their  order,  and  in  the 
same  manner  the  Sabbath ;  and  as  the  Sabbath  was  devoted 
to  God,  likewise  the  rest  of  the  festival  days  are  devoted  to 
him.  Compare  Lev.  xxiii.  4 :  "  These  are  the  festivals  of  the 
Lord  which  ye  shall  call  out  in  their  seasons."  Such  a  lint- 
is  comprehensive,  and  the  standing  of  the  one  festival  is  of 
equal  importance. 

The  Condemnation-  of  a  Heresy  as  to  the  Use  of  Fire. 

What  is  wonderful  in  short-sighted  and  ignorant  people 
who  know  little  of  the  fullest  import  of  the  holy  law  is,  that 
they  claim  that  the  feast  of  the  Passover  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  Sabbath,  and  does  not  have  the  obligations  of  the 
Sabbath.  Thus  one  Israelite  living  outside  of  our  own  town 
in  the  year  1171  of  the  Ilegira1  did  adopt  a  disgusting  cus- 
tom, and  resolved  upon  making  fire  in  his  home  during  the 
festival  days,  claiming  that  fire  is  prohibited  only  on  the  Sab- 

'Thls  date   (17H3  A.D. )   appears  to  be  nn  error;  for  the  following 
appear  to  indicate  that  the  heretic  is  still  living. 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  23 

bath ;  as  if,  according  to  this  theory,  joy  cannot  be  obtained 
except  by  making  fire !  Such  persons  are  indeed  ignorant ; 
for,  if  joy  is  not  obtained  except  through  fire,  the  Sabbath 
had  been  worthier,  in  which  the  prohibition  of  fire  is  com- 
manded. These  words  are  taken  from  the  learned  sheik  Mo- 
sallam  Almoyan  Addanafy,  who  erred  therein,  for  the  man 
who  has  given  birth  to  such  a  deed  is  well  nigh  losing  his 
religion.  The  reason  for  prohibiting  the  making  of  fire,  oh 
this,  as  on  other  festival  days,  is,  that  work  need  not  be 
necessary.  There  is  no  exception  which  permits  the  making 
of  fire  in  their  homes.  And  that  is  why  the  revelation  con- 
cerning the  prohibition  of  fire  was  brought  down  just  about 
the  time  the  revelation  concerning  the  building  of  the  Sheki- 
nah  was  brought  down.  Before  the  apostle  Moses  (upon 
whom  be  peace)  had  given  the  tabernacle  revelation,  he  gath- 
ered the  whole  people,  and  made  them  acquainted  with  the 
command  of  God  concerning  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  and 
the  prohibition  of  fire  making.  Compare  Ex.  xxxv.  3 :  "  Do 
not  make  any  fire  in  all  your  dwellings  on  the  day  of  the 
Sabbath."  We  know  well  what  is  meant  by  the  word  "  day," 
namely,  "  from  sunset  to  sunset."  Compare  Gen.  i.  15 ;  also 
Lev.  xxiii.  32 :  "  From  sunset  to  sunset  ye  shall  cease  from 
work."  Thus  we  know  that  by  "  day  "  we  understand  twenty- 
four  hours,  without  paying  attention  to  those  who  claim  that 
the  meaning  of  the  "  day  "  here  is  intended  to  imply  only  the 
period  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  and  excludes  the  night.  After 
that  revelation  the  apostle  gave  them  the  instruction  concern- 
ing the  building  of  the  tabernacle.  His  insistence  upon  the 
total  abstinence  from  making  fire  on  it  should  be  observed. 
The  man  who  took  upon  himself  the  license  of  making  fire 
upon  the  festival  day  was  induced  by  his  action  to  commit 
greater  offenses;  for,  as  I  have  read  that  this  same  heretic 


24  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

prepared  on  the  festival  day  coffee  for  himself  and  drank  it ; 
he  also  smoked  tobacco,  and  as  this  commodity  brought  about 
one  of  the  principal  confessions,  he  committed  a  great  offense 
and  transgressed  the  command  of  the  Lord  concerning  all 
festival  days:  "Ye  shall  not  do  any  work"  (Lev.  xxiii.  3). 
The  action  of  that  man  caused  him  to  do  exactly  what  might 
defile  him ;  for  on  the  festival  days  he  visited,  and  sat  in  con- 
versation with,  people  of  lewd  character  in  cafes  and  the  like, 
and  associated  with  people  who  differed  with  him  in  religion. 
Like  Haggoyint  [the  Gentiles]  and  others,  instead  of  spend- 
ing the  day  in  the  worship  of  God,  he  spent  it  in  idleness, 
and  in  whatever  might  change  and  degrade  the  character  of 
the  day.  He  made  himself  like  the  Jews,  who  may  justly  be 
called  by  the  aforesaid  name  for  their  deeds.  All  this  was 
contrary  to  the  sayings  of  God  (whose  Name  is  exalted)  that 
on  such  days  fulfillment  of  righteousness  must  be  done.  On 
such  days  our  duties  must  be  holy  and  pure;  we  must  avoid 
all  things  that  may  reflect  upon  the  day,  and  all  defilements 
or  anything  that  may  have  their  shadows.  We  must  be  occu- 
pied in  the  worship  of  the  exalted  God,  in  reading  his  law 
and  the  like,  which  includes  prayer,  reading  of  appropriate 
portions,  etc.  This  ignorant  man,  however,  instead  of  sanc- 
tifying the  day,  defiled  it.  The  elements  of  purity  cannot 
be  harmonized  with  those  of  impurity.  Let  it  be  known, 
therefore,  that  God  (to  whom  be  praise)  prohibited  us  from 
doing  any  work  on  such  days  as  are  devoted  to  him,  that  he 
may  fulfill  righteousness  on  them  by  doing  whatever  is  pure 
and  holy,  and  by  avoiding  whatever  may  desecrate  and  defile 
us,  that  we  who  keep  them  may  justly  fulfill  his  sayings,  "  Ye 
shall  be  sanctified  and  be  holy,  for  I  am  holy."  Such  days 
must  be  kept  holy,  and  not  defiled  with  works  which  may 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  25 

keep  us  away  from  worship,  as  is  the  case  on  the  rest  of  the 
common  days. 

And  thou,  O  ignorant  and  obstinate  man,  consider  what 
great  favor  God  bestowed  upon  his  people  Israel!  He  made 
them  holy,  set  them  apart,  and  preferred  them  above  the  rest, 
and  gave  them  feasts  which  may  claim  a  divine  origin,  and 
for  a  lawful  purpose  proceeding  from  the  command  of  the 
Lord  God  (who  is  highly  exalted)  which  sets  definitely  their 
times  and  seasons  contrary  to  what  may  be  found  in  another 
god.  For  no  other  god  has  instituted  these  festival  days,  nor 
is  our  God  their  author,  but  rather  the  god  who  made  these 
customs  is  himself  made  by  hands.  Woe  unto  thee  if  thou 
wilt  persist  in  this  obstinacy,  and  wilt  refuse  the  heritage  v/ith 
•which  the  Lord  of  Creation  has  endowed  thee !  Consider 
also  what  he  has  said  about  thee ;  about  thy  duty  and  about 
thy  claim  for  him  concerning  the  observance  of  his  times, 
Lev.  xix.  2 :  "Be  ye  holy  for  I  am  holy,  the  Lord  your  God  " ; 
also  in  chapter  xxvi. :  "  Be  ye  holy  unto  me,  I  am  the  Lord 
God  who  hath  set  you  apart  from  the  nations,  that  yc  may 
be  mine." 

A  most  surprising  thing,  indeed,  that  persons  who  are  well 
acquainted  with  the  purpose  of  these  statements  may  act  con- 
trary to  them.  If  the  ignorant  may  say,  "  I  have  done  noth- 
ing; I  have  done  only  things  which  are  commanded  in  the 
law,  and  if  the  prohibitions  of  making  fire  during  the  fes- 
tival days  were  mentioned  I  would  not  have  made  fire,"  such 
a  statement  would  confirm  his  ignorance  and  his  persistence 
therein.  For  the  command  was  not  given  to  prohibit  the 
making  of  fire,  except  that  no  work,  not  even  the  least,  may 
be  done,  and  there  is  no  festival  day,  but  a  command  in  regard 
to  it  was  given  as  follows :  "  Every  work  that  is  to  be  done 
thou  shalt  not  do."  About  some  of  them  he  gave  the  follow- 


26  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

ing  command  in  Lev.  xxiii.  21 :  "Ye  shall  call  on  that  very 
day  a  holy  convocation  for  yourselves.  The  least  work  ye 
shall  not  do.  It  shall  be  an  ordinance  in  your  dwellings  for- 
ever and  to  all  generations  " :  and  if  the  festival  days  had 
something  in  addition  to  the  days  of  the  Sabbath,  this  day  to 
which  a  reference  is  made  by  the  same  verse  would  be  the 
most  worthy  of  all,  for  God  instituted  the  Sabbath  as  the  day 
of  "  the  short  feast,"  and  in  that  there  is  no  difference  be- 
tween the  Sabbath  and  the  rest  in  so  far  as  prohibiting  work 
entirely;  for  he  said  about  the  Sabbath  in  Lev.  xxiii.  3:  "  It 
is  a  Sabbath  for  the  Lord  in  all  your  dwellings."  He  also 
said  in  Lev.  xxiii.  21,  "An  ordinance  forever  in  all  your 
dwellings  unto  all  your  generations."  The  reference  in  the 
word  Moshbotckim  is  to  the  making  of  fire,  for  works  may 
take  place  either  in  the  dwelling  of  man  or  outside  of  it, 
but  the  making  of  fire  must  necessarily  take  place  within  the 
dwelling.  "  Do  not  make  fire  in  all  your  dwellings  on  the 
day  of  the  Sabbath."  In  the  references  where  the  word 
Moshbotckim  occurs,  it  is  always  given  before  Dorotikitn,  in 
order  that  all  generations  may  know  that  this  command  has 
been  given  them  beforehand,  handed  down  from  father  to 
son  as  the  time  goes  by ;  and  whenever  a  new  generation  rises 
up,  its  houses  may  be  seen  void  of  fire  on  all  the  festival  days, 
as  on  the  Sabbath.  New  generations  should  do  as  those  who 
preceded  them  in  obedience  to  the  command  of  God  in  Deut. 
xxxii.  7 :  "Ask  thy  father,  and  he  will  inform  thee ;  the  eld- 
ers, and  they  will  speak  unto  thee."  This  is  exactly  to  an- 
swer any  one  who  might  confide  in  the  heresy  referred  to 
above,  without  heeding  the  righteous  truth,  and  following 
those  who  preceded  him  according  to  what  they  had  handed 
him  and  what  they  themselves  practiced,  believing  that  his 
mind  and  knowledge  are  better  than  those  of  his  ancestors. 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  27 

Such  thinking  as  this  is  an  additional  proof  of  his  stupen- 
dous ignorance  and  lack  of  knowledge,  and  of  the  scarcity 
of  his  understanding;  for  we  have  a  proverb  which  runs  as 
follows :  "  The  path  of  thy  forefathers  leads  thy  steps  to 
safety  and  truth."  It  is  also  said,  "  He  who  follows  his  own 
way  shall  be  led  astray."  If  that  man's  mind  was  sane,  oth- 
ers might  have  followed  him,  but  there  was  none  who  did  so, 
not  even  his  own  wife.  Thus  he  was  alone  in  his  belief,  and 
it  is  current  among  the  rest  of  the  nations  that  the  voice  of 
the  majority  is  the  voice  of  truth,  insomuch  that  they  say, 
''  The  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God." 

This  is  indeed  the  general  impression ;  for  of  the  large 
number  of  learned  teachers  who  are  well  known  for  their 
understanding  of  the  hidden  mysteries  of  the  words  of  the 
Law,  and  who  have  left  behind  them  several  books,  none  did 
presume  what  this  man  has  affirmed  in  his  doings.  There 
were,  indeed,  men  who  could  support  their  claims  with  greater 
logic  and  in  more  charming  style,  but  may  God  forbid  that 
any  teacher,  whether  it  be  in  the  days  of  God's  favor  or  in 
these  days  of  darkness,  should  do  likewise.  This  man  was 
led  further  by  his  ignorance,  so  much  so  that  he  set  apart 
the  day  of  fasting,  from  the  rest  of  the  festival  days,  and  on 
it  he  claimed  that  no  fire  should  be  made.  He  lied  twice  in 
this  statement;  for  he  applied  to  this  day  a  statement  which 
was  given  particularly  for  the  sake  of  the  Sabbath.  But  if 
it  applies  to  this  day.  why  not  to  the  rest  of  the  festival  days, 
which  have,  on  the  whole,  the  same  general  plan  and  regula- 
tions ? 

If  one  should  say  that,  in  regard  to  the  past,  the  Torah 
has  declared  Shcbct  Shebet,  namely,  "A  Sabbath  to  be  kept," 
he  could  not  infer  from  that  that  fire  should  not  be  made 
therein ;  for  these  same  words  were  mentioned  in  reference 


28  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

to  the  year  of  rest.  Compare  Lev.  xxv.  2,  "  Thou  shalt  keep 
a  Sabbath  unto  the  land  " ;  and  apparently,  according  to  him, 
fire  must  not  be  made  during  that  entire  year!  But,  with  all 
that,  work  was  not  prohibited.  May  God  preserve  us  from 
doing  after  the  manner  of  this  ignorant  heretic,  who  is  trying 
to  establish  an  ugly  heritage.  May  he  protect  us  from  com- 
mitting a  similar  error,  and  inspire  us  always  with  obedience 
to  him,  and  faithfulness  to  his  worship.  May  he  bring  us 
nearer  to  his  pleasure.  Verily  he  is  a  faithful  hearer.  May 
he  also  bring  to  guidance  this  ignorant  man,  and  take  him 
off  from  his  folly ;  for  truly  he  is  in  the  lowest  depth  of  ig- 
norance. May  he  examine  his  condition,  and  wake  up  in  his 
soul,  and  combat  himself  and  let  folly  alone,  and  repent  of 
his  deed,  and  return  to  God,  to  the  supreme  and  exalted  God, 
with  a  repentance  that  is  pure  and  unselfish.  If  he  will  do 
this,  God  may  return  to  him,  for  he  is  merciful  and  gracious, 
for  thus  he  spoke  of  himself  to  those  who  may  seek  him,  in 
Deut.  iv.  29 :  "  Return  to  thy  God,  and  he  shall  not  forget 
thee,  nor  forget  the  covenant  which  he  has  made  with  thy 
forefathers." 

End  of  the  Condemnation. 

Let  us  now  return  to  what  may  be  said  concerning  the 
fulfillment  of  the  Passover  ordinance.  For  our  words  have 
been,  so  far,  quite  brief  in  mentioning  the  conditions  of  its 
fulfillment. 

There  remains  yet  a  condition  —  that  the  eating  of  the 
Passover  is  obligatory  upon  every  Israelite,  whether  he  be 
present  or  absent,  and  if  he  be  tameth,  namely,  "  defiled." 
The  eating  of  unleavened  bread  must  last  seven  days  com- 
pletely from  sunset  of  the  fourteenth  of  the  first  month ;  that 
is,  from  the  beginning  of  the  night  of  the  fifteenth  till  sun- 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  29 

set  of  the  twenty-first  up  till  beginning  of  the  night  of  the 
twenty-second.  In  accordance  with  Ex.  xii.  17-19,  "  an  eternal 
ordinance.  In  the  first  month  on  the  fourteenth  day  thereof 
at  sunset  ye  shall  eat  unleavened  bread  until  the  twenty-first 
day  of  the  month  at  sunset.  Ye  shall  eat  seven  days," 
namely,  seven  complete  days.  This  is  an  eternal  ordinance. 
The  fulfillment  thereof  is  obligatory ;  for  it  is  like  circum- 
cision ;  there  is  no  escape  therefrom.  But  at  the  beginning 
of  night  of  the  twenty-second  day  at  sunset  the  end  of  these 
seven  days  is  declared  without  subtraction.  And  he  who 
eats  leavened  bread  in  those  seven  days  must  perish  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  command  of  God  in  Ex.  xii.  19 :  "  He  who 
shall  eat  leavened  bread  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  people  of 
Israel  whether  he  be  a  stranger  or  a  native  of  the  land." 
The  destroying  of  all  leavened  food  in  all  the  dwellings  of 
Israel  has  been  emphasized  again  and  again  even  in  the 
places  where  their  works,  whether  the  dwelling  of  man  be 
in  a  vineyard  or  in  a  garden  or  in  a  field,  even  the  instru- 
ments of  plowing  and  planting,  must  not  be  defiled  therewith, 
for  thus  God  said  in  Deut.  xvi.  4:  "And  there  shall  be  no 
leaven  seen  with  thee  in  all  thy  borders  seven  days."  Some 
of  our  learned  men  went  so  far  as  to  prohibit  the  keeping 
of  Burgol,  which  is  wheat  boiled  and  coarsely  ground,  or 
even  bran,  or  any  kind  of  leaven.  They  advise  that  such  be 
taken  before  the  coming  of  the  feast  and  be  deposited  in  the 
houses  of  neighbors  among  Haggoyim  [the  Gentiles],  and  be 
returned  after  the  passing  of  the  feast,  namely,  the  seven  days 
of  unleavened  bread.  I  presume  that  this  advice  is  due  to 
the  extremity  to  which  our  people  may  be  reduced  in 
destroying  all  leaven,  for  they  indulge  in  those  materials 
which  have  been  mentioned.  They  (may  God  multiply 
them),  at  the  approach  of  the  feast,  about  the  beginning  of 


30  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

the  first  month,  begin  to  clean  up  all  their  food  receptacles 
by  putting  a  new  coating  of  white  zinc  on  their  brazen  dishes 
and  by  buying  new  implements,  such  as  china  dishes  and 
ware,  glasses,  water  jars,  cups,  and  water  pitchers.  They 
also  clean  their  houses  both  in  the  interior  and  exterior. 
They  wash  all  they  have  of  carpets,  rugs,  counterpanes,  and 
blankets,  leaving  nothing  of  household  implements  that  may 
not  be  washed.  All  this  is  done  before  the  arrival  of  the 
feast.  Still  we  go  in  this  generation  to  make  our  Passover 
in  the  plains  outside  of  the  town  on  Mount  Gerizim  in  the 
tents.  We  leave  for  that  place  two  or  three  days  before  the 
feast,  and  remain  there  till  the  second  feast,  remaining  seven 
days  on  the  mountain  until  the  morning.  We  do  according 
to  the  command  given  in  Deut.  xvi.  7,  8,  namely,  "  In  the 
morning  direct  thyself,  and  return  to  thy  dwellings  [tents]. 
Six  days  shalt  thou  eat  unleavened  food ;  and  on  the  seventh 
day  there  shall  be  a  solemn  assembly  to  the  Lord  thy  God. 
Thou  shalt  do  no  manner  of  work  therein."  And  thus  we 
do  nowadays  to  the  favor  of  the  exalted  God.  We  pass 
seven  days  in  our  tents ;  and  the  day  of  convocation,  which 
is  the  seventh,  we  leave  our  tents  for  the  holy  dwelling, 
which  is  the  place  of  the  temple  and  altar,  and  there  we  per- 
form our  duties ;  and  when  the  convocation  has  ended,  each 
returns  to  his  tent  and  attends  to  his  needs.  At  sunset  they 
gather  about  the  high  priest,  each  having  in  his  hand  some 
fuichamess,—  "unleavened  bread,"-  — and  the  high  priest 
reads,  in  company  with  those  present,  beginning  with  the 
words,  "  For  in  the  day  of  Jehovah,"  and  so  on  to  the  end 
of  that  surah. 

After  this,  the  surah  beginning  with  the  words  "And  the 
blood  was,"  to  the  end  of  that  surah.  They  receive  three 
addresses,  reciting  everything  in  good  order,  and  then  they 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  :jl 

eat  unleavened  bread.  On  the  morning  of  the  following"  day 
they  immediately  descend  the  mountain,  each  going  to  his 
own  business. 

We  have  been  brief  in  our  words,  avoiding  lengthy  and 
tiresome  details,  but  the  one  who  desires  to  read  further  con- 
cerning the  subject  may  be  well  satisfied  in  reading  the  book 
called  "Attabakh,"  attributed  to  the  learned  and  wise  sheik 
Hasam  Assoory  of  Tyrus.  May  God  grant  him  forgiveness, 
and  gather  us  with  him  in  the  garden  of  delight.  Amen. 

V.      THE    PASSOVER    WHEN    THE   DATE    FALLS    ON    THE    SABBATH. 

To  the  question,  Suppose  that  the  Passover  should  fall 
on  the  Sabbath,  why  is  it  that  sacrifices  must  take  place  on 
the  day  Friday  after  sunset,  and  what  are  the  reasons  there- 
for? my  answer  here  follows. 

And  my  success  comes  from  God. 

Praise  be  to  him  who  is  a  generous  Giver, 

Who  directs  to  the  right  path, 

Who  does  according  to  his  own  will, 

And  as  he  chooses  to  do. 

In  answer  to  this  question,  namely,  of  offering  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  Passover  when  it  falls  on  the  Sabbath,  and  why 
we  are  obliged  to  kill  the  sacrifice  on  Friday,  I  would  say, 
first,  that  on  the  Sabbath  all  manner  of  work  is  absolutely 
prohibited,  in  accordance  with  the  words  of  the  decalogue, 
"  Do  not  do  any  work  on  it,  for  he  who  does  any  work  on 
it  shall  die."  References  of  this  nature  are  many  in  which 
work  is  prohibited  on  the  Sabbath.  On  this  account  our 
learned  men  (may  the  Lord  grant  them  forgiveness)  in- 
ferred that  the  Passover  should  be  done  on  Friday,  as  he 
said.  "Do  not  leave  anything  of  it  until  the  morning."  Then 


32  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

he  added,  "  and  whatever  may  be  left  of  it  until  the  morn- 
ing ye  shall  burn  with  fire  " ;  for  this  addition  is  surely  meant 
to  be  performed  in  case  the  Passover  falls  on  the  Sabbath, 
for  why  should  God  repeat  in  the  same  line  the  same  prohi- 
bition given  before?  He  said,  also,  in  another  place,  in  Deut. 
xvi.  4 :  "  There  shall  not  be  left  any  of  the  flesh  which  thou 
shalt  sacrifice  on  the  first  day  until  the  morning."  This,  also, 
would  indicate  to  us  that  the  sacrifice  would  take  place  only 
at  sunset.  It  surely  explains  what  must  be  done  in  case  thr 
Passover  falls  on  the  Sabbath.  For  the  sacrifices  then  may 
be  eaten  on  the  Sabbath;  and  should  there  be  left  any  bones 
or  parts  of  it  or  flesh,  they  must  all  be  burned  in  the  night 
of  Sunday.  The  following  reference  is  given  in  regard  to 
the  sacrifice  of  the  Passover  when  it  happens  on  the  Sabbath : 
"  On  the  first  month  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month, 
between  the  two  evenings,  ye  shall  have  the  Passover  for 
the  Lord"  (Lev.  xxiii.  5).  Now  God  did  not  mention  "be- 
tween the  two  evenings,"  except  when  he  had  in  view  the 
falling  of  the  Passover  on  the  Sabbath.  The  evenings  with 
us  number  three:  first,  the  going  down  of  the  sun  in  a  west' 
erly  direction ;  second,  the  immersion  of  the  disk  of  the  sun 
into  the  sea;  and,  third,  the  disappearance  of  the  redness  of 
the  western  skies  from  the  sun.  Now,  whenever  the  Pass- 
over falls  on  the  Sabbath,  the  killing  of  the  sacrifices  takes 
place  as  the  sun  goes  down,  that  is,  after  six  o'clock  of  the 
fourteenth.  The  ordinance  of  the  Sabbath  must  not  be  vio- 
lated ;  therefore,  whatever  may  be  left  of  the  sacrifice  is 
placed  under  watch  until  the  night  of  the  Sabbath  after  sunset, 
and  should  be  burned  then  on  the  altar,  in  the  manner  that 
we  have  already  mentioned.  And  to  God  belongs  the  best 
wisdom. 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  33 

Mount  Gerizim. 

A  few  words  affirming  that  Mount  Gerizim  is  the  chosen 
place;  and  replying  to  the  Jews,  who  claim  that  the  place 
was  intended  to  be  chosen,  and  was  chosen,  only  at  the  hand 
of  Solomon ;  and  convincing  all  with  testimonies  taken  from 
the  Law,  well  known  and  of  legal  nature,  in  a  brief  manner. 
And  to  God  belongs  the  best  wisdom. 

Our  opponents  claim  that  the  chosen  place  appears  only 
at  the  hand  of  Solomon,  and  that  there  was  no  real  temple 
in  Israel  before  the  time  of  that  king.  Thus  they  attribute 
to  the  exalted  Creator  (to  whom  be  praise)  but  little  knowl- 
edge of  the  past  and  future,  for  surely  he  could  not  have 
known  about  the  chosen  place  or  he  would  have  indicated  it 
to  his  chosen,  to  whom  he  made  great  revelations.  But  God 
is  higher,  far  above  these  things,  for  they  are  contradicted 
strongly  by  passages  of  the  Law.  What  otherwise  did  God 
mean  by  his  command  to  Abraham  (to  whom  be  peace)  in 
Gen.  xii.  1 :  "  Now  move  out  of  thy  land,  and  of  the  place 
of  thy  birth,  and  of  the  house  of  thy  father,  and  into  the 
land  which  I  shall  reveal  unto  thee  "  ?  Then  it  is  said  about 
Abraham :  "And  Abraham  went  into  the  land  unto  the  place 
of  Shechem,  unto  the  plain  of  Moreh.  Then  the  angels  of 
the  Lord  appeared  to  him  and  announced  to  him  the  grant  of 
this  land  unto  his  seed"  (ver.  9).  From  this  same  chapter 
we  read:  "And  the  arigel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  Abra- 
ham and  said  unto  him,  To  thy  seed  will  I  give  this  land." 
And  this  took  place  while  our  lord  Abraham  was  living  in 
the  land  of  Ur.  And  when  God  tried  Abraham,  asking  him 
to  sacrifice  his  son,  our  lord  Isaac  (upon  whom  be  peace), 
God's  command  was  given  in  this  manner  (Gen.  xxii.  2)  : 
"  Take  thy  only  son,  Isaac,  whom  thou  lovest,  and  go  with 
him,  journeying  unto  the  land  of  Moreh,"  etc. 


34  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

Now  Abraham  obeyed  the  command  of  the  Lord,  and 
brought  his  son  to  the  place  indicated  to  him  by  God;  and 
after  his  son  was  redeemed,  he  said  in  the  same  chapter, 
"  God  is  seen,"  which  is  to  mean  to-day,  "  In  a  mountain 
God  is  seen,"  meaning  in  a  mountain  God  answers  prayers 
quickly.  This  is  as  much  as  was  said  about  the  mountain 
in  the  days  of  our  lords  Abraham  and  Isaac  (upon  whom 
be  peace).  Concerning  what  was  said  about  it  in  the  days 
of  our  lord  Jacob  (upon  whom  be  peace),  we  may  write 
that  when  Jacob  went  to  his  uncle  Laban,  he  slept  in  the 
chosen  place  and  had  a  dream,  in  which  he  saw  a  ladder 
reaching  the  high  heavens;  and  when  he  arose  from  his 
sleep  he  said :  "  No  doubt  this  is  the  house  of  God  and  the 
gate  of  heaven"  (Gen.  xxviii.  17).  Then  he  made  a  vow 
to  God,  which  was  conditional  upon  God's  favor  and  mercy. 
Compare  Gen.  xviii.  20-22:  "And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow,  say- 
ing, If  God  be  with  me,  and  preserve  me  on  this  road  which 
I  am  passing,  and  if  he  give  me  bread  to  eat,  and  clothes  to 
wear,  and  if  I  return  in  peace  to  the  house  of  my  father,  God 
will  be  my  master,  and  this  stone,  which  I  have  set  up  as  a 
pillar,  shall  be  the  house  of  God.  Also  whatever  thou  giveth 
to  me  I  shall  surely  tithe  it  for  thee."  And  after  his  return 
from  his  uncle's  in  possession  of  his  desire  and  fulfillment 
of  his  purpose  which  he  prayed  from  his  Lord,  it  is  said  in 
Genesis  xxxiii.  18,  "And  Jacob  entered  the  city  of  Nablous 
[Shechem]  in  peace."  There  he  fulfilled  what  he  had  vowed 
upon  himself  to  the  exalted  Lord.  From  these  testimonies 
it  becomes  plain  unto  us,  and  we  fully  realize  that  the  stand- 
ing of  Mount  Gerizim  is  above  all  others.  To  it  the  prayer 
of  Moses  refers  in  his  hymn  which  he  sung  by  the  sea  as  in 
Ex.  xv.  17:  "Thou  shalt  bring  them,  and  plant  them  in  the 
mountain  of  thy  inheritance,  in  the  place  which  the  Lord  has 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  35 

chosen  for  his  dwelling,  which  thy  hand  has  prepared,  O 
God."  Then  he  prayed  for  the  upbuilding  of  this  place,  as,  in 
the  same  verse,  we  read,  "O  Lord,  build  it  up  by  thy  might." 
These  passages  do  affirm  unto  us  that  there  was  then  in 
existence  a  chosen  place,  known  to  our  fathers,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob  (upon  whom  be  peace).  If,  however,  we 
should  surrender,  and  say,  as  our  opponents  do,  that  our 
lord  Abraham  went  to  Jerusalem,  and  there  he  offered  his 
son  Isaac  as  a  sacrifice;  that  our  lord  Isaac  slept  and  dreamed 
there,  and  made  a  vow  in  the  same,  why  was  not  Jerusalem 
singled  out  and  made  known  as  a  chosen  place?  Why  was 
it  left  for  David  and  Solomon  to  discover  that  their  great 
forefathers  had  been  in  error  in  supposing  Mount  Gerizim  to 
be  the  real  sanctuary?  Such  a  belief  is  faulty,  and  cannot 
be  trusted  by  a  sane  mind,  namely,  that  our  most  high  and 
exalted  Jehovah  would  command  his  prophets  to  go  to  places 
which  are  unchosen  and  unknown.  God  (may  his  name  be 
praised)  is  above  all  such  insinuations.  The  Jews  err,  and 
God  is  infallible.  So  much  is  enough  for  those  who  desire 
the  truth,  and  I  pray  God  for  his  help  in  avoiding  false  testi- 
mony and  fallacious  argumentation.  Verily  he  knows  the 
unknown,  and  covers  the  sins  of  those  ivho  groan  from  their 
iniquities. 

VI.      THE   FORTY   YEARS   IN    THE   WILDERNESS. 

I  was  asked  by  some,  How  long  did  the  children  of  Israel 
remain  in  the  wilderness,  and  were  the  forty  years  solar  or 
lunar?  Did  they  offer  the  Passover  sacrifice  and  eat  the 
unleavened  bread,  or  did  they  not  offer  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Passover  and  eat  unleavened  bread,  or  did  they  practice  cir- 
cumcision during  their  stay  in  the  wilderness,  as  our  oppo- 
nents claim?  Did  they  offer  the  daily  sacrifices  or  not,  and 


36  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

the  monthly  sacrifices,  and  those  of  the  feast,  while  they  haft 
with  them  the  Shekinah,  and  fire  was  kept  continually  on 
the  altar? 

The  children  of  Israel  fulfilled  all  the  ordinances  which 
they  were  commanded  in  the  Torah,  among  them  the  Pass- 
over ordinance,  for  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  ordinances.  Our 
fathers  used  to  perform  it  according  to  the  rules  and  regula- 
tions, and  ate  it  with  unleavened  bread  and  bitter  herbs 
throughout  the  forty  years.  Our  opponents  claim  that  our 
fathers  ceased  from  celebrating  the  Passover  during  the  pe- 
riod of  forty  years  which  they  spent  in  the  wilderness. 
Against  this  statement  I  appeal  to  God!  How  could  they 
attend  to  this  ordinance  while  they  were  in  Egypt,  sur- 
rounded by  the  most  oppressive  conditions,  and  then  neglect 
it  when  they  entered  the  wilderness  with  perfect  liberty,  and 
while  Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace)  was  with  them?  How 
could  they  cease  from  performing  an  ordinance  which  was 
given  to  them  as  long  as  the  world  lasts,  being  at  the  time 
in  a  place  where  no  one  would  oppose  them? 

Cattle  for  Sacrifice  in  the  Wilderness. 
I  am  asked,  Whence  did  they  obtain  the  sacrifices,  since 
they  were  in  the  wilderness  and  had  no  cattle?  Nay,  they 
had  their  cattle  with  them,  and  it  is  the  same  with  which 
they  left  Egypt.  Compare  Ex.  xii.  38 :  "Also  went  with  them 
a  mixed  multitude,  and  sheep  and  oxen  and  cattle  in  a  large 
number."  Of  these  they  used  to  offer  their  daily  sacrifices, 
and  whatever  sacrifices  were  required,  according  to  the  times 
and  seasons.  They,  made  the  unleavened  bread  from  the 
manna  which  was  daily  brought  down  upon  them,  and  was 
their  food  for  a  period  of  forty  years.  If  the  opponents  say 
that  manna  cannot  be  called  bread,  I  will  answer  that  such 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  37 

a  name  be  applied  to  it,  for  the  Lord  did  so  design  it  before 
bringing  it  down  to  them :  "  Behold,  I  am  raining  upon  you 
bread  from  heaven"  (Ex.  xvi.  4). 

Now,  as  to  the  period  of  forty  years  complete,  I  would 
say  that  the  manna  was  given  them  during  that  period,  less 
two  months  of  the  first  year.  And  it  is  said  that  it  did  not 
cease  from  them  except  when  they  encamped  in  the  plain 
of  Moreh,  by  the  side  of  Mount  Gerizim.  The  verse  "  They 
ate  the  manna  until  they  entered  into  the  boundaries  of  the 
land  of  Canaan"  (Ex.  xvi.  35),  means  that  the  same  ceased 
from  being  given  to  them  when  they  arrived  at  the  boun- 
daries of  the  land  of  Canaan.  As  the  verse  "  The  children 
of  Israel  ate  manna  forty  years  "  means  the  forty  years  were 
fulfilled,  including  the  month  and  a  half  or  two  which  trans- 
pired of  the  first  year  without  the  manna.  On  the  fifteenth 
day  of  the  forty-first  year,  when  they  began  to  eat  of  the 
fruits  of  the  land,  the  falling  of  manna  ceased.  Then  they 
surely  must  have  crossed  the  Jordan  on  the  tenth  of  the  first 
month  of  that  year,  which,  according  to  tradition,  may  have 
been  Tuesday,  or  more  accurately  Wednesday.  They  stopped 
in  the  Gilgal  on  Thursday,  and  they  ate  manna  in  it,  and  on 
Friday  they  went  out  and  gathered  three  omers  of  manna  for 
each,  which,  according  to  our  traditions,  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  blessed  feast  of  the  Passover  took  place  in  that 
period.  Some  of  our  best  chroniclers  say  that  the  Passover 
took  place  on  Monday.  Thus  their  first  feast  in  the  Holy 
Land  was  the  Passover,  and  that  on  Monday,  for  they  ate 
it  of  unleavened  bread  made  of  the  flour  of  the  land  which 
they  baked ;  and  this  is  the  true  version  of  it,  I  think. 

Those  who  claim  that  those  who  entered  into  the  wilderness 
or  were  born  during  the  forty  years  were  not  circumcised 
make  a  terrible  mistake.  What  prohibited  them  from  doing 


38  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

so?  for  they  were  commanded  with  this  ordinance  from  the 
times  of  our  lord  Abraham  (upon  whom  be  peace).  They 
understood  how  absolute  and  definite  are  the  punishments 
of  those  who  do  not  perform  it.  Passages  to  that  effect  are 
numerous,  for  whosoever  is  born  among  the  Israelites,  and 
is  not  circumcised  on  the  eighth  day,  is  not  counted  with 
the  people,  and  that  soul  is  destroyed  from  the  number  of 
its  people.  What  our  opponents  claim  in  this  matter  is  un- 
acceptable and  irrational,  and  so  much  is  enough  in  this  brief 
treatise.  I  pray  thee,  God,  for  the  attainment  of  my  desire 
and  the  grace  of  avoiding  falsehood  and  error.  Amen,  O 
God,  and  Amen. 

VII.      THE    FASTS    OF    MOSES. 

A  question  concerning  the  fasting  of  our  lord  Moses: 
Was  it  forty  days  during  the  first  fasting,  and  forty  days 
during  the  second  only,  or  did  he  undergo  three  fastings, 
namely  three  forties,  according  to  what  our  learned  men 
have  informed  us?  May  God's  pleasure  be  upon  them  all. 

When  did  these  fastings  begin,  and  when  did  they  end? 
The  answer  is  given  through  a  plain  Scriptural  statement. 
And  God  possesses  the  best  knowledge. 

The  fastings  of  our  lord  Moses  (may  peace  be  his  por- 
tion) were  three  in  number,  each  lasting  forty  days.  The 
first  one  is  mentioned  in  the  surah  beginning  with  Alah- 
Alai-Haharah,  where,  in  Ex.  xxiv.  18,  we  read:  "And  Moses 
was  on  the  mountain  forty  days  and  forty  nights."  Now 
when  Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace)  departed  from  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  and  went  down  and  saw  what  the  people  were  do- 
ing, and  beheld  that  accursed  calf,  with  that  frightful  scene 
around  it,  he  threw  the  two  tablets  from  his  hand  and  broke 
them  at  the  base  of  the  mountain,  doing  what  we  read  was 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  39 

done  with  the  worshipers  of  the  calf,  for  God  destroyed 
them  in  that  time.  Thus  we  read  in  Ex.  xxxii.  30,  31 :  "And 
in  the  morning-  Moses  said  to  the  people,  Ye  have  sinned  a 
great  sin,  and  I  am  about  to  ascend  before  God  and  pray, 
and  perhaps  I  will  intercede  for  your  sins;  therefore  Moses 
returned  to  God."  There  he  fasted  for  the  second  time  forty 
days,  while  interceding  for  the  people,  until  God  had  accepted 
his  prayers  and  had  forgiven  the  people.  We  know  this  from 
Deut.  ix.  18 :  "  Then  I  prayed  before  Jehovah,  as  before, 
and  during  forty  days  and  forty  nights  I  neither  ate  bread 
nor  drank  water,  because  of  your  sins  which  ye  have  com- 
mitted to  do  the  evil  thing  before  Jehovah  to  offend  him." 

We  know,  besides,  that  God  commanded  him  to  make  two 
other  tablets  like  the  first  one  and  commanded  him  to  en- 
grave them,  as  it  is  revealed  in  Ex.  xxxiv.  1 :  "  Jehovah  said 
unto  Moses,  Hew  thee  two  tablets  of  stone  like  the  two  first 
ones,"  etc.  And  in  the  second  line  of  the  same  chapter  we 
read :  "And  be  ye  ready  in  the  morning,  and  ascend  in  the 
morning  unto  Mount  Sinai."  It  is  well  known  that  this  com- 
mand of  God  (may  his  name  be  praised)  was  given  after 
the  second  fasting  of  forty  days.  Compare  Deut.  x.  1 :  "At 
that  time  Jehovah  said  unto  me,  Hew  thee  two  tables  of 
stone  like  unto  the  first."  Moses  hewed  unto  himself  the  sec- 
ond two  stone  tablets  on  that  day,  and  on  the  following  he 
went  with  them  up  into  the  mountain,  for  we  read  in  Ex. 
xxxiv.  2 :  "And  be  ye  ready  in  the  morning,  and  go  up  in  the 
morning  to  Mount  Sinai,  and  stand  there  before  me  upon  the 
top  of  the  mountain.  Let  no  man  go  up  with  thee." 

While  on  this  mountain  he  fasted  forty  days  for  the  third 
time.  For  we  read  in  the  same  chapter,  namely,  Ex.  xxxiv. 
27-28 :  "  And  Jehovah  said  unto  Moses,  Write  thou  these 
words:  for  after  the  tenor  of  these  words  I  have  made  a 


40  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

covenant  with  thee  and  with  Israel.  And  he  was  there  with 
Jehovah  forty  days  and  forty  nights;  he  did  neither  eat 
bread,  nor  drink  water.  And  he  wrote  upon  the  tables  the 
words  of  the  covenant,  the  ten  commandments."  It  is  known, 
also,  from  the  Torah,  that  the  first  fasting  of  the  apostle 
Moses  (may  the  peace  of  God  be  upon  him)  began  on  Fri- 
day, which  is  known  with  us  as  the  day  Kohlch-Ha-Ibrim 
("  the  gathering  of  Hebrews  ")  ;  for  on  Monday  God  com- 
manded him  in  Ex.  xix.  10-11,  "And  Jehovah  said  unto 
Moses,  Go  unto  the  people,  and  sanctify  them  to-day  and 
to-morrow,  and  let  them  wash  their  clothes.  And  be  ready 
against  the  third  day ;  for  the  third  day  Jehovah  will  come 
down  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people  upon  Mount  Sinai."  The 
third  day  would  be  Wednesday,  which  is  with  us  the  Pente- 
cost day,  and  on  that  day  the  righteous  God  (may  he  be 
praised)  uttered  the  ten  commandments,  which  day  became 
with  them  a  great  day,  whose  importance  has  kept  well  known 
until  our  days.  It  is  named  "  the  Day  of  Mekratah."  On 
that  selfsame  day  Moses  pronounced,  in  the  hearing  of  the 
people,  the  ten  commandments,  as  stated  in  Ex.  xix.  25 :  "  So 
Moses  went  down  unto  the  people,  and  spoke  unto  them." 
He  gave  them  an  exposition  of  God's  statutes  and  what  God 
had  addressed  to  him,  for  we  read  in  Exodus,  "  Thus  shalt 
thou  say  to  the  house  of  Jacob  and  announce  to  the  children 
of  Israel";  and  we  read  also:  "And  Moses  came  and  ex- 
plained to  the  people  all  the  commandments  of  the  Lord  and 
all  his  statutes."  He  also  did  what  is  given  in  Ex.  xxiv.  4: 
"And  Moses  wrote  all  the  words  of  Jehovah,  and  rose  up 
early  in  the  morning,  and  builded  an  altar  under  the  hill,  and 
twelve  pillars,  according  to  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel."  And 
that  morning  was  the  morning  of  the  fifth  day,  which  was 
Thursday,  as  mentioned  by  the  learned  doctor  Sadakah  in 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  41 

his  exposition  book.  On  that  day  they  offered  sacrifices  upon 
the  altar,  and  what  Moses  has  written  of  the  commands  of 
God  was  read  to  them. 

VIII.      THE    WRITING    OF   THE   COMMANDMENTS. 

We  have  been  asked,  What  was  the  use  of  writing  the  com- 
mandments of  God  and  reading  them  to  the  people  after  the 
people  had  been  addressed  directly  with  them,  and  after  they 
had  answered,  "All  the  words  which  Jehovah  hath  said  will 
we  do"  (Ex.  xxiv.  3)? 

The  answer  is  like  this :  A  man  will  agree  with  another 
upon  some  thing.  He  writes  first  the  agreement  and  reads 
it  to  him.  The  second  party  agrees  or  disagrees  to  the  agree- 
ment, and  that  is  why  the  people  answered,  "  We  will  do," 
in  Hebrew,  Nesheh.  They  said  the  second  time,  "  We  shall 
obey  and  do,"  equivalent  to  Nechmoa  Unecheh  in  the  Hebrew. 
And  when  the  young  man  of  Israel  had  killed  the  offerings 
of  oxen  upon  the  altar  which  the  apostle  had  built,  the  latter 
took  the  blood,  and  put  half  of  it  in  basins,  and  the  other 
half  he  sprinkled  on  the  altar;  but  the  half  which  was  kept 
in  the  basin  he  sprinkled  over  the  children  of  Israel.  Thus 
the  blood  fell  upon  their  clothing  and  the  ten  commandments 
Eshret  Hadebarim  were  inscribed  upon  the  people  according 
as  they  were  heard  from  the  mouth  of  the  Almighty  God, 
who  made  a  covenant  with  them,  according  to  Ex.  xxiv.  8: 
"And  he  said,  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  which  Je- 
hovah has  made  with  you  concerning  all  these  words."  In 
another  place,  namely,  Ex.  xxxiv.  27,  we  read :  "According 
to  the  tenor  of  these  words  I  have  made  a  covenant  with  thee 
and  with  Israel."  This  covenant  was  made  with  them,  that 
they  might  not  commit  any  transgression  in  the  command- 
ments of  the  High  God  (whose  name  is  exalted).  It  is  the 


42  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

fourth  commandment  of  the  seven  which  God  had  made  with 
the  children  of  Israel.  And  God  knows  best,  and  to  him  be- 
longs the  best  wisdom. 

Now,  after  the  fulfillment  of  all  these  things,  God  said, 
in  Ex.  xxiv.  12 :  Elah,  Elai  Haharah,  namely,  "  Come  up  to 
me  to  the  mountain."  This,  therefore,  according  to  the  reve- 
lation, was  on  Friday,  upon  which  his  first  fastings  took 
place.  On  the  morning  of  the  forty-first  day  he  descended 
the  mountain,  and  found  what  the  people  had  done  in  refer- 
ence to  the  calf,  and  took  the  same,  and  burned  it  on  that 
very  day.  It  is  well  known  what  he  did  on  that  day.  On 
the  following  morning  he  returned  to  the  mountain  to  inter- 
cede for  the  people  and  for  their  transgressions,  as  we  have 
already  stated.  He  remained  there  fasting  for  forty  days, 
and  on  the  fulfillment  of  the  forty  days  he  descended,  and 
hewed  out  the  two  tablets  on  the  day  of  his  descent.  On  the 
morning  he  returned  and  ascended  the  mountain,  to  obtain 
the  writing  upon  the  second  two  tablets.  Compare  Ex.  xxxiv. 
2 :  "And  be  ready  by  the  morning,  and  come  up  by  the  morn- 
ing unto  Mount  Sinai."  Thus  the  whole  period  previous  to 
this  amounted  to  eighty-two  days.  After  he  had  fasted  an- 
other forty  days,  the  period  totalled  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  days  plus  the  day  on  which  he  descended.  Now,  as  four 
days  had  proceeded,  namely,  Monday,  Tuesday,  Wednesday, 
and  Thursday,  and  as  doubtless  one  day  or  two  were  omitted 
from  one  month,  the  descent  of  the  apostle  Moses  (upon 
whom  may  be  the  best  peace),  after  the  end  of  the  third  forty 
days,  was,  in  all  probability,  on  the  morning  of  the  ninth  day 
of  the  seventh  month,  that  is,  on  the  day  known  with  us  as 
Teshet  lomey  Hateshobah,  that  is,  "  the  nine  days  of  re- 
pentance." 

On  that  day  Moses  commanded  the  people  to  fast  on  the 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  43 

tenth  of  the  seventh  month,  known  with  them  as  "  the  day 
of  the  great  atonement,"  in  Hebrew  lorn  Hakeforim.  This 
is  in  accordance  with  what  our  learned  doctor  of  blessed 
memory,  Sadakah,  has  said.  This  account  would  be  true  if 
the  third  month  had  fallen  on  Monday.  If  it  had  fallen  on 
the  Sabbath,  then  the  omission  of  only  one  day  in  the  four 
months  we  have  mentioned  could  have  taken  place,  for  it  is 
impossible  that  four  months  should  occur  without  the  omis- 
sion of  a  single  day,  as  our  learned  men  claim  that  the  new 
moon  of  the  first  month  in  which  the  Passover  was  celebrated 
in  Egypt  took  place  on  Thursday.  This  is  quite  proved. 
Thus,  following  in  the  least  these  accounts,  we  would  think 
that  one  month  in  these  six  months  had  been  omitted ; 
and  it  is  said  that  the  six  days  which  are  mentioned  in  Ex. 
xxiv.  16,  "And  a  cloud  covered  it  for  six  days,"  were  in- 
cluded in  the  fasting  of  the  apostle  Moses  in  his  first  fasting. 
And  God  has  the  best  knowledge  of  all  these  things. 

This  is  what  my  tired  understanding  and  weak  mind  have 
been  able  to  record  concerning  this  question,  and  I  pray  God 
for  forgiveness  if  any  addition  or  subtraction  has  been  made. 

IX.      TPIE  REVELATION   OF  THE  TORAH. 

I  have  been  asked  by  some  concerning  the  noble  Torah, 
as  to  the  time  of  its  revelation,  and  whether  it  was  revealed 
all  at  once,  or  at  different  times  according  to  the  events. 
What  Biblical  explanations  could  be  given  which  are  of  a 
convincing  nature? 

Let  it  be  known  unto  thee,  O  questioner,  that  the  holy 
Torah  was  revealed  in  one  roll  by  the  supreme  righteous 
God,  written  in  the  handwriting  of  the  Almighty,  in  charac- 
ters that  are  well  known,  containing  all  the  verses  and  di- 
visions and  commands  and  prohibitions  and  explanations  and 


44  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

other  knowledge  from  the  very  beginning  to  the  end.  This 
is  according  to  what  our  most  learned  high  priest  Hasam 
Assoory  of  Tyrus  has  written  in  his  book,  known  as  the  book 
of  "  Tabach."  They  err,  those  among  our  people  (whom 
may  God  diminish)  claiming  that  the  commandments  of  the 
Torah  and  its  prohibitions  were  addressed  to  the  apostle 
Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace),  who  wrote  them  down  him- 
self. Now  their  claim  is  wrong,  from  various  points  of  view. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  question  of  the  manna.  It  was 
given  to  the  people  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  the  second  month 
of  the  first  year  of  their  departure  from  Egypt,  and  continued 
to  be  given  unto  them  while  they  were  in  the  wilderness  for 
a  period  of  forty  years,  both  solar  and  lunar,  until  they 
arrived  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  Compare  Ex.  xvi.  35 :  "And 
the  children  of  Israel  ate  the  manna  for  forty  years,  until 
they  arrived  in  an  inhabited  land.  They  ate  the  manna  until 
they  arrived  at  the  borders  of  Canaan."  Consider,  for  in- 
stance, the  question  of  sprinkling  the  water  which  he  com- 
manded to  be  done  in  the  ninth  day  of  the  first  month  of 
the  second  year  of  their  departure  from  Egypt.  Examples 
of  this  nature  can  be  multiplied.  Thus  it  is  plain  that  the 
apostle  Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace)  received  delivered  unto 
him  all  the  Torah  written  in  all  perfection.  Of  this  there 
are  various  proofs. 

First.  God  does  not  create  anything  unless  he  provides  for 
its  necessity  and  usefulness.  To  verify  my  statement  con- 
cerning the  Torah,  I  will  begin  citing  Ex.  xxiv.  12,  "Ascend 
unto  me  to  the  mountain,  and  be  there:  and  I  will  give  thee 
the  two  tablets,  and  the  law  and  the  commandments,  which 
I  have  written  down  for  their  instruction."  The  words  "  the 
law  "  and  "  the  commandments  "  refer  to  the  roll  of  the  Law, 
which  is  the  Torah,  without  the  least  doubt.  We  can  prove 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  45 

that  this  one  referred  to  is  found  in  the  same  book,  chapter 
xxxii.  32,  "  Otherwise  blot  me  out  from  thy  roll  which  thou 
hast  written."  The  word  Sepher  means  "  roll "  wherever  it 
is  found,  although  some  interpreters  render  it  by  the  word 
"  book." 

Second.  That  the  Torah  was  revealed  and  came  down 
completely  in  one  roll  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  it  mentions 
events  before  their  happening.  Compare,  for  instance,  what 
God  has  said  concerning  the  river  which  comes  out  of  the 
garden  and  which  divides  into  four  parts.  The  first  part 
surrounds  the  land  of  "  Hewilah,"  which  is  Egypt.  The  sec- 
ond surrounds  the  land  of  the  Soudan.  The  third  is  that 
which  runs  east  of  the  land  of  Mosul.  The  fourth  is  the 
Euphrates.  This  statement  was  given  in  the  beginning  of 
creation,  before  the  existence  of  either  Egypt  or  Soudan  or 
any  other  country.  Then  when  God  created  Eve  out  of  the 
rib  of  our  father  Adam  (upon  whom  be  peace),  he  said  in 
Gen.  xxiv.  29 :  "  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and 
mother,  and  cleave  unto  his  wife."  Then  there  were  neither 
father  nor  mother  and  none  but  Adam  and  Eve,  and  this 
was  the  first  commandment  given  unto  the  seed  of  Adam. 

Third.  What  was  meant  by  the  reference  to  the  age  of 
Moses,  the  son  of  Amram,  in  Genesis,  "And  his  days  shall 
be  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  "  ? 

Fourth.  The  statement  concerning  the  daughters  of  Lot, 
wherein  it  was  said,  about  the  first,  "And  the  oldest  gave 
birth  to  a  son  whom  she  called  Moab,  and  he  is  the  father 
of  Moab  unto  this  day  " ;  and  of  the  second,  "And  the  younger 
gave  birth  to  a  son  whom  she  called  Ben-Ammi,  and  he  is  the 
father  of  the  children  of  Ammon  unto  this  day"  (Gen.  xix. 
37-38).  Now  the  saying  "unto  this  day"  is  to  mean  that 
the  same  could  be  applied  to  the  end  of  generations. 


46  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

Fifth.  The  report  of  God  of  the  death  of  our  lord  Isaac 
(upon  whom  be  peace)  which  should  have  been  given  after 
the  story  of  our  lord  Joseph  (upon  whom  be  peace),  for  the 
death  of  Isaac  took  place  after  Joseph  had  passed  twelve 
years  in  Egypt. 

Sixth.  We  can  find  proof  in  Gen.  xxxvi.  31,  where  it  is 
said :  "  These  are  the  kings  which  reigned  in  Edom,  before 
there  reigned  a  king  of  the  children  of  Israel."  The  names 
of  the  kings  are  there  given,  and  the  last  king  was  Hadad. 
He  was  the  same  king  concerning  whom  verse  14  of  chapter 
xx.  of  Numbers  is  given:  "And  Moses  sent  messengers  from 
Kadesh  to  the  king  of  Edom,"  who  was  really  Hadad,  in 
accordance  with  the  instructions  of  our  learned  men.  For 
in  Lev.  xxxvi.  all  the  kings  were  said  to  have  died,  with  the 
exception  of  the  last  one,  whose  death  was  not  mentioned, 
and  who  did  not  die  until  after  the  children  of  Israel  had 
possessed  the  land.  Besides,  everything  that  was  mentioned 
in  the  first  book,  which  was  Genesis,  took  place  before  the 
time  of  our  lord  Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace). 

Seventh.  The  question  of  manna  is  another  proof.  It 
was  sent  down  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  the  second  month. 
The  statement  which  reads,  "And  the  children  of  Israel  ate 
the  manna  to  the  end,"  was  given  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fortieth  year;  and  if  the  Torah  had  not  descended  upon 
Moses  in  one  single  year,  this  statement  would  not  have 
been  written  down  at  the  end  of  the  fortieth  year. 

Eighth.  God  said  that  there  should  be  a  place  of  refuge 
for  a  man  who  has  killed  another  man  unknowingly,  and  that 
the  refugee  should  remain  in  the  place  until  the  death  of  the 
high  priest.  Now  this  statement  was  written  at  the  end  of 
the  fourth  book,  and  these  places  were  to  be  established  after 
the  conquest  of  the  holy  land.  We  find  it,  however,  men- 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  47 

tioned  in  the  second  book,  which  is  Exodus,  in  the  surah 
beginning  with  chapter  xxi.,  verse  7.  Read,  therefore,  verse 
13,  "  Make  therefore  a  place  of  refuge  for  him,  that  he  may 
flee  thereto."  This  statement  was  given  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fortieth  year,  but  the  children  of  Israel  had  no  high 
priest,  nor  had  they  the  order  of  the  priesthood.  Similar 
examples  might  be  cited  to  prove  our  point. 

Now,  as  to  those  who  claim  that  the  Torah  was  given 
piece  by  piece  in  accordance  with  the  events  that  happened, 
then  it  must  have  descended  on  several  prophets,  beginning 
with  our  lord  Adam,  the  father  of  all  mankind  (upon  whom 
be  peace),  and  ending  with  the  last,  who  is  Joshua;  for  the 
Torah  closes  with  Moses  (may  peace  be  his  portion),  and 
the  installment  of  Joshua,  his  successor  (upon  whom  be 
peace).  Now,  if  any  one  should  say,  "Every  prophet  wrote 
the  happenings  of  his  days  during  his  lifetime,  and  the  same 
was  done  by  our  lord  Moses,  who  wrote  everything  in  the 
Law,"  this  supposition  is  liable  to  faults  and  exaggerations, 
and  Moses  could  not  help  writing  down  every  statement 
of  the  least  portion  of  the  contents  of  the  Torah.  Supposing 
that  this  is  true,  who,  then,  wrote  down  the  account  of  the 
creation  and  the  things  that  took  place  before  the  life  of  our 
father  Adam,  and  who  wrote  the  account  of  the  tower  of 
Babel  and  what  happened  to  its  builders?  Surely  they  did 
not  do  it!  Who  wrote  the  affair  of  the  daughters  of  Lot? 
For  their  father  knew  nothing  of  it,  as  we  read  in  Gen.  xix. 
33-35,  proving  his  entire  innocence.  Surely  it  could  not  be 
true  that  the  daughters  themselves  reported  it!  And  who 
might  have  informed  us  of  the  affair  of  Tamar,  the  daugh- 
ter-in-law of  Judah?  She  surely  would  not  have  reported 
the  truth.  And  then,  again,  during  the  life  of  Moses,  who 
was  present  with  Balak  and  Balaam,  who  may  be  considered 


48  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

worthy  of  belief,  that  he  might  inform  Moses  of  the  same , 
that  the  latter  might  write  it  down  as  the  Torah  gives  it 
in  detail,  and  also  concerning  the  ass  of  Balaam  and  the 
language  which  he  spoke?  God  indeed  understands  all  lan- 
guages. He  knows  what  is  visible  and  invisible.  I  suppose 
the  speech  of  the  ass  was  in  the  same  speech  which  Balaam 
understood,  and  God  used  a  language  which  was  understood 
by  the  people  of  that  land,  namely,  Hebrew. 

We  know,  also,  that  the  Torah  was  given  in  one  single 
roll  by  reading  and  understanding  its  contents ;  for,  if  it  had 
been  given  in  accordance  with  the  progress  of  the  events  as 
they  happened,  it  would  have  been  written  in  the  style  of  a 
history.  But  the  style  is  indeed  quite  different.  The  visit  of 
Jethro  to  his  brother-in-law,  that  is,  to  Moses,  was  men- 
tioned, as  well  as  the  advice  he  gave  to  our  lord  Moses  (upon 
whom  be  peace)  in  Ex.  xviii.  The  account  concludes  with 
verse  27,  "And  Moses  sent  his  father-in-law,  and  he  went  to 
his  land  " ;  but  the  exact  date  of  the  departure  of  Jethro  is 
given  in  Numbers,  just  on  the  day  the  people  of  Israel  left 
Mount  Sinai.  Chapter  x.  29  says :  "And  Moses  said  to 
Hobab,  the  son  of  Raguel,  the  father-in-law  of  Moses  (for 
Jethro  was  called  also  Hobab),  We  are  about  to  leave." 

In  Exodus  the  erecting  of  the  tabernacle  on  the  first  day 
of  the  first  month  of  the  second  year  of  the  departure  of  the 
children  of  Israel  from  Egypt  was  mentioned  (read  Ex.  xvi. 
33).  From  these  we  know  that  the  tabernacle  was  erected 
and  finished  on  the  first  month  of  the  second  year,  and  on  the 
first  day  of  the  month.  We  know  also,  that  whenever  the  cloud 
disappeared  from  over  the  tabernacle,  the  children  of  Israel 
would  move  onward,  and  this  was  the  uniform  beginning  of 
their  journeys.  So  much  only  is  said,  but  what  has  been  said 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  49 

is  again  affirmed  in  Lev.  i.  1,  "And  Jehovah  called  out  Moses, 
and  spoke  to  him  out  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation, 
saying,"  etc.  But  after  the  end  of  the  third  book  and  what- 
ever it  contained  of  meanings  and  advice,  Numbers,  which  is 
the  fourth  book,  takes  up  the  same  question  again.  It  begins : 
"And  Jehovah  spake  unto  Moses  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai, 
in  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
second  month  of  the  second  year  after  their  departure  from 
the  land  of  Egypt,  saying,  Count  up  the  congregation  of 
the  children  of  Israel,"  etc.,  which  is  plain  enough.  There- 
fore, it  must  be  understood  that  one  month  after  the  erection 
of  the  tabernacle,  God  commanded  that  the  children  of  Israel 
be  numbered,  that  the  census  be  taken  of  the  tribes  of  the 
children  of  Israel.  But  nearly  one  fourth  of  the  book  may 
be  read  before  the  question  of  the  completion  of  the  erection 
of  the  tabernacle  is  taken  up,  in  chapter  vii.  in  the  first  verse, 
which  reads :  "And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  day  when  Moses 
had  fully  set  up  the  tabernacle,  and  had  anointed  it  and  sanc- 
tified it,"  etc.  Now  if  the  events  should  have  been  consec- 
utively mentioned  in  accordance  with  their  time  order,  this 
surah  and  all  that  follows  it  as  far  as  chapter  ix.,  verse  15, 
which  reads :  "And  in  the  day  of  the  erection  of  the  taber- 
nacle," etc.,  should  either  begin  the  book  of  Leviticus  or  be 
an  end  to  the  book  of  Exodus. 

Also  the  surah  beginning  with  Num.  vi.  22,  which  reads: 
"And  Jehovah  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  Aaron 
and  unto  his  sons,  saying,  In  this  way  ye  shall  bless  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel,  saying  unto  them,  Jehovah  bless  thee,  and 
keep  thee,"  etc.,  should  have  come  before  the  surah  men- 
tioned in  Lev.  ix.  22,  which  reads :  "  Then  Aaron  lifted  up 
his  hand  towards  the  people,  and  blessed  them,"  etc.  The 


50  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

command  of  the  blessing  is  given  in  Num.  vi.  22,  while  the 
fulfillment  of  it  is  previously  mentioned  in  Lev.  ix.  22.  While 
the  blessing  takes  place,  the  water  of  consecration  should  be 
sprinkled  over  the  people,  which  was  the  part  of  Mishael  and 
Elzaphan  when  they  picked  up  Nadab  and  Abihu,  the  sons 
of  Aaron,  and  moved  them  when  they  were  dead.  Thus  they 
were  defiled  with  the  defilement  of  the  dead  person.  Therefore 
God  commanded  that  this  water  of  consecration  be  instituted 
on  their  account.  This  was  on  the  eighth  day  of  consecra- 
tion, but  the  preparation  of  the  water  of  consecration  took 
place  on  the  ninth  day  of  the  first  month  of  the  second  year 
of  their  departure  from  the  land  of  Egypt,  but  the  purification 
of  Elzaphan  and  Mishael  must  have  taken  place  only  on  the 
night  of  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  month,  which  is  the  night  of 
the  Passover,  and  they  could  not  perform  the  Passover  nor 
eat  it  on  account  of  the  pollution,  therefore  God  commanded 
the  doing  of  the  second  Passover  on  their  account.  To  prove 
this  we  will  state  that  ever  since  God  commanded  that  the 
Passover  should  be  performed  on  the  night  of  the  fifteenth 
of  the  first  month  of  the  second  year,  this  has  been  so  done. 
So  he  made  plain  statements  in  regard  to  the  second  Pass- 
over, in  Num.  ix.  6  and  the  following  verses,  during  that 
year  to  be  performed  for  the  benefit  of  the  polluted  man, 
which,  according  to  our  learned  doctor,  were  the  abovemen- 
tioned  men.  This  is  a  remarkable  example  of  mentioning 
events  without  regard  to  their  chronological  order.  Exam- 
ples of  this  nature  are  many,  and  we  do  not  intend  to  men- 
tion them,  for  we  believe  if  the  apostle  Moses  (upon  whom 
be  peace)  had  written  down  the  events  as  they  transpired, 
a  due  attention  would  have  been  given  to  chronological 
order. 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  51 

Concerning  Specific  Records  Made  by  Moses. 

If  one  should  ask,  How  could  you  explain  Ex.  xii.  14? 
the  answer  is,  God  commanded  Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace) 
to  write  the  memorial  of  the  blotting  out  of  the  Amalekites, 
and  read  the  same  to  Joshua  (upon  whom  be  peace),  to  ac- 
quaint him  with  it,  although  the  learned  high  priest  Sadakah, 
of  blessed  memory,  wrote  in  regard  to  this  roll,  which  is 
mentioned  in  the  aforesaid  verse,  that  Moses  had  it  to  re- 
mind him  of  events  which  he  would  copy  into  the  Torah 
when  later  he  compiled  the  complete  work.  This  statement 
of  the  high  priest  will  be  refuted  later  on. 

Now  the  meaning  of  this  verse  is  the  same  as  that  found 
in  Ex.  xxiv.  4,  namely,  "And  Moses  wrote  down  all  the  words 
of  God  " ;  and  verse  7  reads :  "And  Moses  took  the  roll  of 
the  covenant,  and  read  it  in  the  hearing  of  the  people."  In 
the  same  manner  we  read  Num.  v.  23. 

The  Cases  where  Moses  was  in  Uncertainty  concerning 
the  Divine  Will. 

Now  if  one  should  say,  Granting  that  the  apostle  Moses 
(upon  whom  be  peace)  received  the  whole  Torah,  containing 
all  the  events,  why  is  it  that  in  Lev.  xxiv.  12  we  find  Moses 
somewhat  undecided  as  to  the  case  of  the  son  of  Shelomith 
when  he  blasphemed  the  name  of  Jehovah,  namely,  that 
Moses  put  this  man  in  prison  until  Jehovah  should  reveal 
unto  them  his  will?  Again,  in  ix.  7  when  he  was  asked,  Why 
should  we  cease  from  offering  to  Cod  the  sacrifices  in  their 
season  ?  He  answered  in  the  following  verse,  "  Wait  until 
I  hear  what  Jehovah  shall  command  unto  you."  Again,  when 
they  found  a  man  cutting  wood  on  the  Sabbath,  and  brought 
him  before  the  apostle  Moses,  he  said  in  Num.  xv.  34 :  "  Let 


52  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

him  be  kept  under  guard  until  it  may  be  known  what  must 
be  done  with  him."  And  nothing  was  done  until  an  answer 
was  returned,  as  the  holy  Torah  asserts. 

When  the  apostle  Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace)  received 
the  roll,  he  placed  it  in  his  tent,  as  it  is  mentioned  in  Ex. 
xxxiii.  7 :  "And  Moses  removed  the  tent,  and  erected  it  out- 
side of  the  encampment,  far  from  the  encampment,  and 
called  it  the  meeting  tent."  In  the  beginning  of  the  month 
he  received  a  command  from  God  to  read  the  Torah,  and  to 
write  a  copy  of  it  as  it  is  written  in  Deut.  i.  3 :  "In  the  for- 
tieth year,  in  the  eleventh  month,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
month,"  etc.  And  then  verse  5,  "  Moses  had  begun  to  copy 
this  law."  He  used  to  be  the  judge  of  Israel  during  those 
forty  years,  as  we  read  in  Ex.  xviii.  16 :  "I  judge  between 
man  and  man,  and  acquaint  them  with  the  commandments 
of  God  and  his  laws."  Whenever  he  met  with  difficulties  he 
used  to  have  recourse  to  God  for  enlightenment,  lest  false 
judgments  might  be  rendered.  For  he  was  far  above  false 
judgments.  As  to  the  time  when  he  received  the  roll,  ac- 
cording to  the  most  learned  man,  the  relative  of  ours,  the 
one  of  blessed  memory,  Hasam  Assoory  of  Tyrus,  in  his  book 
called  "Attabakh,"  the  roll  was  given  to  Moses  at  the  end  of 
his  forty  days'  fast,  when  he  received  the  two  tablets  which 
were  later  on  dashed  to  pieces.  My  opinion,  and  I  pray  God 
for  forgiveness  if  I  am  mistaken,  is  that  Moses  received  it 
at  the  end  of  "his  second  forty  days'  fast ;  for  in  his  first  fast 
he  received  the  first  two  tablets ;  and  during  his  second  fast  he 
received  the  roll  of  the  law;  and  during  his  third  forty  days' 
fast  he  received  the  second  two  tablets.  This  conclusion  may 
be  reached  from  the  wording  of  the  law.  And  God  possesses 
the  best  knowledge. 

It  was  for  this  roll  that  our  lord  Moses  removed  his  tent 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  53 

outside  of  the  encampment,  and  placed  in  it  the  roll,  the  tent 
being  called  the  "  meeting  tent."  Our  lord  Joshua  was  its 
guard,  keeping  it  in  this  tent  in  accordance  with  Ex.  xxxiii. 
2,  where  we  read:  "And  his  servant  Joshua  Ben  Nun  did  not 
go  out  of  the  middle  of  the  tent."  Do  you  not  see  that  the 
apostle  took  him  in  his  company  during  the  first  forty  days' 
fast,  as  we  read  in  Ex.  xxiv.  13 :  "And  Moses  and  his  ser- 
vant Joshua  arose  and  ascended  to  the  mountain  of  God," 
etc.?  During  the  second  forty  days,  Joshua  remained  at  the 
base  of  the  mountain,  gathering  his  food  of  the  manna,  until 
the  descent  of  Moses  with  the  two  tables.  What  proves  that 
Joshua  remained  throughout  all  those  days  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  is  found  in  Ex.  xxxii.  17;  for,  when  the  apostle 
Moses  descended  with  the  two  tablets  after  his  fast  of  forty 
days,  we  read :  "And  Joshua  heard  the  voice  of  the  people 
in  shouting,  and  he  said  to  Moses,  There  must  be  a  war  cry 
in  the  encampment."  If  he  had  been  present  among  the  peo- 
ple he  would  not  have  said  this  in  an  inquiring  manner. 

During  the  second  forty  days'  fast  Joshua  did  not  accom- 
pany Moses,  nor  did  anybody  else;  for  we  read  in  Ex.  xxxiv. 
3 :  "  Let  no  man  go  up  with  thee." 

If  any  one  should  ask  why  the  high  priest  Merkah,  of  blessed 
memory,  said  in  reference  to  the  decalogue,  "And  he  wrote  of 
them  five  writings,"  the  meaning  is,  that  the  decalogue  includes 
in  its  explanation  the  whole  Torah.  And  he  who  desires  to  in- 
vestigate further  may  look  up  the  commentary  of  the  law  writ- 
ten by  Aben  Ha  jar,  and  that  of  the  high  priest  Merkah,  which 
possess  full  explanations  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  various 
readings  of  the  law.  He  declares  likewise  that  the  Torah 
descended  as  a  whole  from  before  the  presence  of  God,  writ- 
ten by  the  very  hand  of  the  Almighty,  and  handed  down  to 
his  apostle  our  lord  Moses  Ben  Amram  (upon  whom  may  be 


54  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

the  best  of  regard).  Therefore,  as  can  be  seen  from  several 
passages  chosen  from  his  writings,  and  from  the  writings  of 
our  crowned  poet,  our  lord  Moses  Ben  Amram  received  the 
Torah  in  one  roll  containing  all  the  ordinances,  command- 
ments, and  prohibitions,  all  the  news  and  teachings,  which 
are  attributed  to  have  come  from  God,  and  which  therefore 
are  true  and  righteous,  not  liable  to  addition  or  detraction, 
with  plain  characters  inscribed  in  the  very  material  of  the 
roll  with  the  color  of  fire,  as  we  read  in  Deuteronomy, — 

"  From  his  right  hand  they  have  a  fire  of  law.  Blessed 
art  thou,  O  Israel.  Blessed  art  thou,  for  what  thy  Jehovah 
has  granted  to  thee,  for  the  high  station  to  which  he  has 
raised  thee,  for  the  abundance  of  favors  which  he  has  be- 
stowed on  thee  above  all  others.  Thou  art  the  noble  race ; 
from  thee  the  world  becomes  acquainted  with  virtue  and 
knowledge;  from  thee  the  wise  men  receive  their  wisdom, 
and  their  laws  are  derived  from  thy  laws;  from  its  sea  of 
abundance  they  have  drunk;  upon  it  they  have  relied  and  to 
its  wisdom  they  have  helped  themselves,  becoming  thereby  thy 
disciples." 

Compare  Deut.  xxxiii.  3 :  "  They  shall  bow  before  thy  feet, 
and  receive  instruction  from  thy  words  " ;  for  thy  ennobling 
and  thy  honor  that  God  spoke  in  Deut.  iv.  6 :  "  Since  thy  wis- 
dom and  prudence  is  before  the  eyes  of  the  Gentiles  who  will 
hear  all  these  commands,  they  will  say,  Verily  this  people 
is  wise  and  prudent  and  far-seeing."  Continue  to  read  to 
verse  8:  "And  what  people  is  so  great  that  it  has  commands 
and  ordinances  so  just  as  those  found  in  this  law?"  Again, 
verses  32,  33 :  "Ask  now  of  the  days  that  are  past,  which 
were  before  thee,  since  the  day  when  God  created  man  on 
earth,  and  from  one  end  of  the  heaven  to  the  other  end  of 
heaven,  whether  anything  has  ever  been  as  this  great  thing, 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  55 

or  whether  there  has  ever  been  heard  anything  like  it?  Did 
any  people  ever  hear  the  voice  of  God  speaking  out  of  the 
midst  of  fire  as  thou  hast  heard,  and  remain  alive  ?  " 

Many  similar  examples  could  be  multiplied  which  would 
make  the  exposition  in  this  book  somewhat  lengthy.  May 
God  make  you  and  us  among  those  who  cover  us  with  the 
cover  of  righteousness,  who  put  on  the  cover  of  righteous- 
ness and  clothe  themselves  with  the  robe  of  purity.  We  have 
taken  the  privilege  to  explain  fully  in  regard  to  this  matter, 
that  the  obstinate  may  be  made  wise  and  abandon  his  way. 
He  is  ignorant  who  belies  us  by  saying  that  the  law  did 
not  come  down  from  the  righteous  presence  of  God  in  one 
roll  from  beginning  to  end.  He  ignores  the  words  of  God 
and  the  meaning  of  his  law.  It  may  suffice  us  to  say  that 
even  our  opponents,  such  as  Haggoyim,  testify  that  no  other 
book  came  as  a  whole  from  before  the  presence  of  God  ex- 
cept the  holy  Torah.  So  much  is  enough  to  him  who  is  not 
swayed  by  his  lust,  who  follows  truth  and  receives  the  divine 
guidance.  The  Most  High  God  is  most  righteous,  and  pos- 
sesses the  best  knowledge.  I  pray  his  forgiveness  for  all  ad- 
dition and  subtraction. 

X.      THE   TWO    STONE    TABLETS. 

I  have  been  asked  by  some,  concerning  the  two  stone  tab- 
lets which  were  broken,  When  were  they  prepared,  and  what 
happened  to  the  writing  after  the  breaking  of  the  tablets? 
When  were  the  two  second  tablets  placed  in  the  chest?  What 
was  their  size?  What  Scriptural  grounds  can  be  adduced  to 
prove  the  answers? 

The  first  two  tablets  were  created  by  God  in  the  begin- 
ning, and  some  claim  that  this  was  done  on  the  third  day 
of  the  creation,  according  to  the  high  priest  Micah.  Others 


56  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

say  that  the  two  tablets  were  prepared  when  they  were 
needed.  We  believe  that  the  first  statement  is  more  valid. 
The  writing  was  engraved  upon  them  like  the  engraving  of 
a  signet  ring,  and  was  done  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty. 
(Compare  Ex.  xxxi.  18,  "written  by  the  fingers  of  God.") 
It  is  said  that  the  two  tablets  were  the  creation  of  God,  and 
that  their  writings  were  the  writings  of  the  Divine  Essence, 
engraved  upon  the  two  tablets  which  were  handed  to  the 
apostle  Moses  by  the  chief  of  the  angels,  that  is  by  Gabriel, 
the  Archangel,  at  the  close  of  Moses'  forty  days'  fast.  Some 
say  that  Moses  found  them  before  him  at  his  feet  at  the 
place  wherein  he  was  tenting  while  on  the  mountain.  This 
statement,  I  believe,  (and  I  pray  God  to  shield  me  from  mis- 
takes,) is  more  correct  than  that  the  Power  Divine  handed 
them  to  him  without  his  seeing  anything;  for  he  was  stand- 
ing in  darkness  listening  to  the  address  of  God  coming  from 
the  midst  of  the  fire.  The  writing  was  plain  on  either  side, 
and  all  the  characters  were  horizontal  in  shape,  without  be- 
ing connected  the  one  with  the  other.  Each  tablet  was  a 
cubit  and  a  half  in  length  and  in  breadth,  but  three  fourths 
of  a  cubit  in  height.  They  fitted  the  chest  wonderfully.  The 
thickness  of  both  of  them  combined  equaled  two  cubits  and 
a  half,  in  accordance  with  the  height  of  the  chest. 

When  Moses  descended  from  the  mountain  and  arrived  at 
the  outskirts  of  the  encampment,  he  saw  the  calf  and  the 
frolic  scene  around  it  (and  may  such  a  scene  never  take 
place  again),  and  his  anger  was  boundless,  and  he  dashed 
the  two  tablets  to  the  earth  in  their  presence  and  broke  them. 
But,  before  doing  so,  he  showed  the  people  the  two  tablets, 
their  bright  likeness  and  wonderful  engraving,  declaring  to 
them  that  God  was  angry  at  their  deed,  and  hence  they  were 
unfit  to  receive  the  tablets.  At  that  moment,  God  (may  his 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  57 

name  be  exalted)  caused  the  writing  to  disappear,  and  com- 
manded Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace)  to  dash  them  on  the 
ground.  If  God  had  not  blotted  out  his  writing  from  the 
two  tablets,  it  would  not  have  been  lawful  or  possible  unto 
Moses  to  break  them.  Thus  the  same  disappeared  up  to 
heaven  by  the  power  of  God,  and  nobody  knew  what  became 
oi  them. 

After  his  second  fasting,  while  he  was  interceding  for  this 
great  sin,  his  prayers  having  been  answered,  God  commanded 
him  to  hew  unto  himself  two  tablets  like  unto  the  first,  having 
the  same  shape  and  size,  and  to  prepare  the  chest  in  accord- 
ance with  their  size.  He,  therefore,  following  the  instruction 
of  God,  ascended  the  mountain  and  fasted  forty  days  for  the 
third  time.  And  the  two  tablets  were  taken  away  from  him 
and  engraved  by  the  hand  of  God,  like  the  first  two,  with  the 
ten  commandments,  only  without  addition  or  subtraction. 

He  came  down  with  them  on  the  ninth  day  of  the  seventh 
month,  as  we  have  stated  already,  and  placed  them  in  the 
chest  which  he  had  purposely  prepared  for  them  in  his  tent. 
And  he  placed  them  beside  the  holy  Torah  until  the  taber- 
nacle was  erected,  when  he  deposited  them  in  that,  which 
Bezaleel  had  made,  as  we  read  in  Exodus,  "And  he  took  and 
placed  the  testimonies  in  the  chest."  But  the  command  was 
given  first  in  Numbers,  "And  place  the  testimonies  which  I 
give  thee  in  the  chest."  This  was  confirmed  later  on  in  Num- 
bers: "And  it  was  there  as  Jehovah  commanded." 

And  God  possesses  the  best  wisdom. 

XI.      THE  TABLETS  OF  TESTIMONY. 

Why  were  the  two  tablets  called  the  tablets  of  testimony 
and  the  tablets  of  stone?  They  were  called  the  tablets  of 
testimony  that  they  might  be  a  living  testimony,  written  in 


58  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

the  correct  and  original  Hebrew  language,  and  containing 
all  the  decalogue,  against  whomsoever  may  transgress  them 
or  change  them  or  garble  them.  They  were  called  so  also, 
probably,  because  the  children  of  Israed  testified  unto  them- 
selves to  accept  them  and  to  act  in  accordance  with  all  of 
what  God  spoke  in  Mount  Sinai  in  their  hearing  and  pres- 
ence. Compare  Exodus :  "  Whatever  God  comanded  us  we 
will  obey  and  do."  And  that  is  probably  why  they  were  called 
tablets  of  stone  to  indicate  that  they  were  solid  and  of  hard 
nature.  The  meaning,  however,  is  deep,  and  God  only  fa- 
thoms its  secrets. 

XII.      THE  TRANSCRIPTION   OF   THE   TORAH. 

When  was  the  roll  of  the  law  read  which  was  given  to  our 
lord  Moses  Ben  Amram,  when  was  it  transcribed  by  his  noble 
hand,  and  when  did  the  children  of.  Israel  read  the  same  and 
learn  it,  after  the  death  of  the  apostle? 

When  the  apostle  received  from  God  the  holy  roll,  he 
placed  it  in  his  tent  outside  of  the  encampment,  and  God  used 
to  speak  to  him  after  the  fog  had  encompassed  the  tent  and 
covered  the  place  where  the  holy  roll  was  deposited.  This 
was  done  there  when  consultation  concerning  the  daily  affairs 
of  the  people  was  needed.  The  commandments,  however, 
were  given  to  him  in  the  tabernacle,  between  the  two  cheru- 
bim. The  roll  remained  in  its  place  for  forty  years.  It  was 
placed  by  the  side  of  the  chest  which  Bezaleel  had  prepared 
for  the  two  tablets  as  soon  as  the  tabernacle  was  erected,  as 
we  have  stated  before.  During  the  first  of  the  eleventh  month 
of  the  fortieth  year,  Moses  began  to  copy  the  holy  law,  and 
deposited  two  copies  which  he  finished  in  the  first  month,  one 
with  the  Levites,  the  other  with  the  elders.  Compare  Deut. 
xxxi.  9:  "And  Moses  wrote  this  law,  and  handed  it  to  the 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  59 

priests,  the  sons  of  Levi,  and  to  all  the  elders  of  Israel."  And 
he  taught  them  its  content,  as  we  find  in  the  same  chapter, 
verse  19.  Some  say  that  that  verse  refers  to  the  hymn,  as  in 
the  verse  we  read:  "And  now  write  for  yourself  this  hymn/' 
But  we  believe  that  the  meaning  refers  to  all  the  content  of 
the  law ;  for,  at  the  end  of  these  words,  we  read :  "And  after 
Moses  finished  writing  down  the  commandments  of  this  law 
in  the  roll,"  etc.,  he  commanded  the  Levites  to  take  the  roll 
that  came  from  God,  and  place  it  beside  the  chest  of  the  two 
tablets.  Compare  Deut.  xxxi.  26 :  "  Take  the  roll  of  the 
Torah,  and  place  it  by  the  side  of  the  chest  of  the  covenant 
of  your  God,  and  let  it  be  unto  thee  a  witness." 

The  death  of  our  lord  Moses  took  place  in  the  beginning 
of  the  twelfth  month  of  the  fortieth  year,  and  the  children 
of  Israel  mourned  him  during  that  whole  month.  And  on 
the  first  day  of  the  first  month  they  left  Arabat  Moab,  and 
on  the  tenth  of  the  same  they  crossed  the  Jordan. 

It  is  said  they  crossed  the  sea  on  Wednesday,  and  heard 
the  voice  of  God  on  Wednesday,  and  crossed  the  Jordan  on 
Wednesday.  And  unto  God  belongs  all  wisdom  and  power. 

XIII.      THE  JORDAN. 

If  any  one  should  ask,  What  is  the  Jordan?  answer,  It  is 
the  river  of  the  Torah. 

They  celebrated  the  Passover  after  they  crossed  the  Jordan, 
and  on  the  second  day  of  the  feast  of  the  Passover  manna 
disappeared,  and  they  ate  from  the  products  of  the  land  and 
made  therefrom  unleavened  bread.  Then  they  began  their 
seven  years'  war  against  the  enemy,  and  on  the  seventh 
month  of  the  seventh  year  they  conquered  their  enemies  en- 
tirely, and  were  rested,  and  erected  the  tabernacle  on  Mount 
Gerizim,  which  is  the  chosen  place  of  the  dwelling  of  the 


60  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

Most  High  God.  They  built  the  stone  altar  in  accordance 
with  the  command  of  God,  and  offered  due  sacrifice,  and 
fasted  during  the  great  day  of  sin  covering,  and  celebrated 
the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  On  that  day  the  high  priest  Eleazar 
Ben  Aaron  began  to  read  the  law  to  the  people  from  the 
copy  handed  to  them  by  Moses,  the  apostle  of  God,  written 
by  his  noble  hand,  as  we  see  in  Deut.  xv.  1,  "At  the  end  of 
seven  years,"  in  the  first  year  of  rest,  when  the  children  of 
Israel  shall  celebrate  the  feast  and  appear  before  the  Lord 
thy  God  in  the  place  which  he  chose,  shalt  thou  read  before 
them  this  Torah  in  the  hearing  of  the  children  of  Israel.  He 
began  its  reading  on  the  feast  day,  and  on  the  seventh  day  it 
was  finished.  It  is  said  that  he  used  to  read  to  them  some 
book  each  day. 

He  would  stand  on  a  high  place,  and  would  raise  his  voice 
so  the  whole  people  could  hear  his  words  and  understand  the 
meaning,  and  the  import  of  the  Torah,  —  what  was  to  them 
pure  and  what  was  impure,  the  verses  that  were  intended  for 
men  and  those  that  were  intended  for  women,  all  that  God 
commanded  that  they  should  do  and  perform.  Compare  Num. 
xxxi.  12 :  "  Gather  ye  the  people,  men  and  women,  and  the 
children  and  the  neighbors  and  the  strangers,"  that  they 
may  hear  and  be  instructed.  Some  learned  men  say  that,  on 
account  of  the  large  number  of  people  and  the  large  space 
occupied  by  their  tents,  the  high  priest  could  not  make  him- 
self understood  to  the  farthest  as  well  as  the  nearest  to  him, 
and  therefore  he  used  to  adopt  two  plans:  either  to  gather 
them  in  separate  numbers  and  read  to  each;  or  to  read  to 
the  chiefs  of  the  people,  the  men  of  understanding,  and  have 
them  instruct  the  rest.  And  God  knows  best. 

It  is  said  that  whenever  seven  years  would  pass,  when  the 
year  of  rest  would  take  place,  the  high  priest  used  to  enter 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  61 

the  tabernacle  on  the  day  of  Sin  Covering  to  burn  incense. 
He  would  return,  and  with  him  he  would  have  the  roll  of 
the  Torah,  and  would  read  it  to  the  people  of  Israel,  accord- 
ing to  one  of  the  above  plans  during  one  of  the  seven  days 
of  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  He  would  keep  the  roll  through- 
out that  whole  year,  for  the  people  used  to  be  scattered  after 
their  plowing  and  planting,  treepruning,  and  the  rest  of  their 
work.  The  scribes  would  present  themselves  before  the  high 
priest  and  examine  the  writing  of  the  roll,  the  placement  of 
characters,  and  the  true  spelling.  During  the  second  year, 
on  the  day  of  Sin  Covering,  he  would  return  the  roll  to  its 
place.  Some  learned  men,  however,  say  that  the  roll  was 
never  removed  from  its  place  in  the  tabernacle.  It  was  only 
the  roll  that  was  written  by  the  hand  of  Moses  that  was  taken 
out  and  shown  to  the  people,  which  is  quite  correct.  And 
God  knows  best  the  truth. 

XIV.      THE   SHINING   OF    MOSES'    FACE. 

I  was  asked  by  some,  concerning  the  face  of  our  lord 
Moses  Ben  Amram  when  it  was  bright  and  shone  with  light, 
When  did  it  happen,  and  how  did  he  use  to  deal  with  the 
people  when  he  used  to  read  to  them  the  words  of  God? 

After  the  three  forty  days'  fastings,  light  darted  out  from 
him  with  dazzling  effulgence,  outwardly  and  inwardly,  and 
his  noble  face  shone.  This  was  one  of  the  greatest  wonders 
that  he  performed;  for  the  one  who  keeps  up  fasting  be- 
comes feeble,  he  loses  his  strength,  and  the  energy  upon  his 
face  is  lost.  It  was  the  contrary  in  his  case;  for,  in  spite  of 
the  long  fasting,  he  shone  with  a  divine  light,  through  the 
favor  of  God.  This  is  implied  in  the  saying  of  God  in  Ex. 
xxxiv.  10 :  "  With  thee  I  will  do  wonders  again,  which  have 
never  before  been  performed  in  all  the  earth,  and  before  all 


62  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

men,  and  in  all  nations,"  —  meaning  that  none  of  the  jewel? 
of  the  earth  will  ever  compare  in  brightness  with  this  light 
with  which  he  shone.  He  added  "  and  in  all  nations," 
meaning  that  there  has  never  been  any  man  among  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  who  had  ever  come  near  possessing  the 
same. 

Verse  11  reads:  "And  all  the  people  of  which  thou  art 
will  see  that  the  work  which  the  Lord  thy  God  will  do  thee 
is  wonderful,"  meaning  that  this  wonder  will  be  seen  by  the 
people  without  their  being  conscious  of  it.  For  we  read  in  Ex. 
xxxiv.  39 :  "And  Moses  knew  not  that  the  skin  of  his  face 
began  to  shine  while  he  was  speaking  with  him."  And  when 
he  descended  from  the  mountain,  the  children  of  Israel,  with 
his  brother  Aaron,  saw  him  while  his  face  was  brighter  than 
the  light  of  the  sun.  And  they  were  dazzled  with  his  look, 
and  were  afraid  to  approach  him,  as  we  read  in  verse  30, 
"  they  were  afraid  to  approach  him,"  although  he  knew  noth- 
ing about  the  condition  of  his  face,  for  he  was  like  other  men, 
and  unable  to  see  his  own  face.  Calling  them  to  draw  near, 
he  was  informed  of  what  they  saw.  Therefore  he  made  for 
himself  a  face  veil,  in  order  that  the  people  might  behold 
him  (may  the  peace  of  God  be  upon  him).  So  then,  when- 
ever he  addressed  them,  he  would  uncover  his  face,  and  would 
speak  with  them  the  words  of  God ;  and  when  he  was  through 
his  address  they  would  not  be  able  to  behold  him.  When- 
ever he  went  into  the  presence  of  God  he  unveiled  himself, 
but  when  he  addressed  the  people  he  put  on  the  veil.  And 
God  knows  best. 

I  was  asked  by  some,  concerning  Ex.  xxiv.  10,  "And  they 
saw  the  God  of  Israel,  and  there  was  under  his  feet  as  it 
were  a  paved  work  of  sapphire  stone,  as  clear  as  the  cloud- 
less heaven,"  What  did  they  see?  They  saw  indeed  our  lord 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  63 

Gabriel  the  Archangel,  the  servant  of  the  glorious  God.  To 
interpret  the  word  Elohim  as  God  would  be  gross  ignorance, 
for  God  has  neither  member  nor  claw,  because  in  the  same 
verse  we  read:  "under  his  feet."  For  God  (who  is  exalted) 
is  not  seen,  and  cannot  be  likened  to  anything.  Compare  Ex. 
xxxiii.  20 :  "  For  no  man  shall  see  me  and  live." 

The  word  Elohim  has  different  interpretations.  It  may 
be  applied  just  as  the  words  Rabbi  and  Adonai  to  several 
titled  persons,  such  as  the  governor,  sultan,  etc.,  the  number 
of  which  may  render  this  treatise  long.  Therefore  what  they 
saw  was  not  God,  but  Gabriel,  as  we  have  said.  He  was 
standing  on  a  platform  in  the  guise  of  a  column  as  pure  as 
a  jewel,  and  very  transparent,  as  we  read  in  xxxiv.  10, 
"  having  the  transparency  of  heaven  in  clearness,"  that  is, 
as  clear  as  the  heaven  when  it  is  cloudless.  Our  lord  Ga- 
briel was  in  the  service  of  Hakkabod  (Glory),  whose  look 
was  like  the  very  consuming  fire.  Compare  Ex.  xxiv.  17, 
"And  the  appearance  of  the  glory  of  God  was  like  "the  very 
consuming  fire  on  the  top  of  the  mountain  in  the  presence 
of  the  children  of  Israel." 

At  this  time  they  were  commanded  what  we  read  in  Ex. 
xxiv.  1 :  "And  he  said  to  Moses,  Come  up  thou,  and  Aaron, 
and  Nadab,  and  Abihu,  and  seventy  of  the  elders  of  Israel,  and 
worship  from  afar."  It  is  said  also,  Let  Moses  and  Aaron 
and  Nadab  and  Abihu  and  Ithamar  come.  And  they  saw 
the  Lord  of  Israel  while  they  were  at  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tain, but  the  people  observed  the  light  from  the  encampment, 
as  we  read  in  the  same  chapter,  "  in  the  presence  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel."  This  was  on  a  different  day  from  that  of 
the  day  of  the  address  before  the  decalogue,  for  there  we 
read  in  Ex.  xix.  21 :  "  Hurry  down  and  warn  this  people, 
lest  they  be  emboldened  to  see  Jehovah."  He  also  warned 


64  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

him  to  declare  unto  the  people,  even  unto  the  priests,  not  to 
approach  the  mountain.  He  commanded  them  to  consecrate 
themselves  lest  the  chief  angel  should  strike  them.  Compare 
verse  22:  "And  let  the  priests  also,  that  come  near  unto 
Jehovah,  sanctify  themselves,  lest  the  angel  of  Jehovah 
strike  them  down " ;  and  that  is  why  we  read  in  xxix.  11 : 
"And  upon  the  nobles  of  the  children  of  Israel  he  laid  not 
his  hand,"  which  means  that  they,  with  the  exception  of  the 
apostles,  did  not  embolden  themselves,  and  did  not  approach 
without  receiving  a  command,  and  did  not  commit  any  evil 
thing  without  being  struck  by  the  Lord.  But  they  were  fa- 
vored with  strength  and  power  from  on  high,  when  they  saw 
the  chief  archangel  in  that  wonderful  sea. 

They  returned  safely  and  with  gladness,  eating  and  drink- 
ing. Compare  Ex.  xxiv.  11 :  "And  they  saw  the  angel  of 
the  Lord,  and  they  ate  and  drank."  Moses,  however,  did 
not  receive  the  address  which  was  all  made  in  the  presence 
of  the  people  of  Israel. 

And  I  pray  God  for  forgiveness  for  any  addition  or  sub- 
traction. This  is  what  my  tired  mind  and  sickly  understand- 
ing could  discover.  And  God  possesses  the  best  knowledge. 

XV.      THE    WATER    AT    REPHIDIM. 

To  the  question,  What  happened  in  Rephidim  of  mira- 
cles, on  account  of  the  lack  of  water,  and  its  appearance 
through  Moses?  my  answer  here  follows. 

Before  the  war  with  the  Amalekites  they  encamped  in- 
Rephidim  and  were  very  thirsty,  as,  when  they  encamped 
there,  they  found  no  water.  They  quarreled  with  the  apostle 
Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace),  and  told  him:  "Arise,  and 
give  us  water,  that  we  may  drink,  together  with  our  children 
and  babes  and  cattle."  But  the  apostle  told  them:  "Why 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  65 

quarrel  ye  with  me,  and  tempt  Jehovah  ? "  They  let  him 
alone ;  but,  on  account  of  their  parching  thirst,  they  returned 
unto  him,  and  said :  "  Did  you  intend  to  bring  us  out  of 
Egypt  that  we  might  perish  of  thirst?  If  we  ourselves  were 
guilty,  and  did  not  deserve  to  be  given  water,  the  children 
and  the  cattle,  in  what  have  they  sinned,  that  they  should  die 
of  thirst  ?  "  The  apostle,  knowing  that  they  were  to  strike 
him  down,  cried  to  God  for  help,  and  the  answer  was  imme- 
diate :  "  Pass  before  the  people,  and  be  not  afraid,  and  take 
with  thee  some  of  the  elders  of  Israel." 

This  was  done  that  they  might  behold  the  wonder,  and 
not  in  company  with  the  people;  for  the  place  from  which  he 
caused  the  water  to  gush  forth  was  far  away,  and  all  the 
people  could  not  behold  it.  And  Jehovah  knew  that  there 
was  no  good  in  their  coming  to  it  to  behold  it.  The  place 
was  Horeb.  In  verse  6  it  reads,  "  Behold,  I,"  meaning  that 
the  angel  will  stand  in  a  pillar  of  cloud  in  the  place  which  he 
was  to  strike. 

Arriving,  the  apostle,  in  company  with  the  elders,  smote 
the  rock  with  his  well-known  staff;  and  behold  the  water  in 
abundance  flowing  out  of  it,  which  formed  a  large  river.  This 
river  is  the  one  alluded  to  in  Deut.  ix.  21,  "  I  have  cast  its 
dust  in  the  river  which  flowed  from  the  mountain."  It  di- 
vided into  two  branches,  one  branch  toward  Rephidim  and 
the  other  toward  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  of  which  they  drank 
during  their  stay  in  the  wilderness.  That  place  was  called 
Meribah  in  Ex.  xvii.  7 :  "And  he  called  the  name  of  the  place 
Massah  Meribah."  The  first  word,  Massah,  refers  to  their 
tempting  God,  as  we  read  in  xxii.  2;  and  this  was  due  to 
their  great  ignorance,  lack  of  faith  and  trust  in  the  presence 
of  God,  and  in  his  power  to  overcome  their  hunger  and  their 
thirst.  Verse  7  proves  this;  for  in  it  we  are  told  that  they 


56  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

said :  "  Is  God  among  us,  or  not  ?  "  This  was  prohibited  by 
God,  as  we  read  in  Deut.  vi.  16 :  "  Ye  shall  not  tempt  Jehovah 
your  God,  as  ye  tempted  him  in  Massah."  The  word  "  Meri- 
bah  "  refers  to  the  quarrel  which  they  had  with  the  apostle. 
But  God  knows  best. 

XVI.      THE   BATTLE   WITH   THE   AMALEKITES. 

As  to  the  question  of  the  Amalekites'  battle  and  the  rea- 
son why  the  Amalekites  came  from  a  far  country  to  fight 
them  in  that  place,  we  may  answer,  that  this  took  place  for 
several  reasons :  First,  that  God  might  remind  them  of  what 
they  had  committed  in  past  sins,  when  they  desired  water  and 
tempted  him,  quarreling  with  his  apostle,  that  they  might 
reform  and  repent.  Second,  when  the  king  of  the  Amalekites 
heard  of  the  arrival  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  feared  lest 
they  would  attack  his  land  on  account  of  his  courage  and 
his  strength  of  character  and  his  God-offending  pride,  he 
sought  to  fight  them  in  that  place,  thinking  that  he  would 
overpower  them  in  the  wilderness  easier  than  it  would  be 
possible  for  him  had  they  been  in  a  nearby  settled  country, 
thereby  showing  to  the  rest  of  the  nations  his  audacity  and 
boldness.  Therefore  God  sentenced  him  to  perdition,  as  we 
read  in  Num.  xxi.  20 :  "  The  first  of  the  nations  is  Amalek, 
but  its  end  is  perdition." 

XVII.       THE    REASON    FOR    NOT    DESTROYING    THE    AMALEKITES 

EARLIER. 

Should  one  ask,  Why  did  not  God  destroy,  as  he  was  able, 
the  Amalekites  before  they  fought  the  children  of  Israel?  we 
answer,  God  was  surely  able  to  do  so,  but  he  allowed  this  to 
help  him,  that  it  might  be  an  example  and  a  reminder,  like 
the  affair  of  Pharaoh,  together  with  the  miracles  that  took 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  67 

« 

place  to  his  disadvantage  and  to  that  of  his  people;  that  the 
children  of  Israel  might  know  the  great  favor  of  God  in  de- 
stroying this  Amalek,  who  was  a  giant,  and  greater  than  he 
God  had  never  before  created ;  and  that  they  might  know  the 
art  of  war  and  tactics  and  courage,  so  that,  when  Sihon  and 
Og  and  the  rest  should  come  against  them,  they  would  fight 
without  fear. 

Again,  the  coming  of  this  great  giant  with  his  Amalekites 
was  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  all  those  who  complained 
and  quarreled  with  our  lord  Moses  in  connection  with  the 
waters.  Compare  xvii.  11.  As  to  the  real  battle,  Moses  gave 
its  conduct  to  Joshua  Ben  Nun  because  he  was  sure  of  his 
courage,  and  that  the  apostle  Moses  might  stay  on  the  moun- 
tain interceding  and  praying  for  success.  Of  this  our  lord 
Moses  had  informed  his  disciple  Joshua,  saying  to  him,  that 
what  he  would  do  would  take  place  on  the  morrow.  At  that 
time,  therefore,  he  ascended  the  mountain  in  company  with 
Aaron  and  Hur,  who  was  the  grandfather  of  Bezaleel,  who 
built  the  tabernacle. 

One  stood  on  his  right  and  the  other  at  his  left,  while  the 
apostle  stood  interceding  and  praying,  with  his  hands  raised 
towards  heaven  towards  the  holy  place,  and  his  staff  in  his 
hand.  Verse  12  tells  us  that  his  hands  became  tired;  and 
therefore  Aaron  and  Hur  supported  them,  for  he  was  higher 
than  they,  as  they  placed  under  him  a  stone,  and  he  sat  on 
it :  "  But  Moses'  hands  were  heavy ;  and  they  took  a  stone, 
and  put  under  him,  and  he  sat  thereon." 

Now  if  some  ask,  Why  did  the  apostle  not  keep  his  hands 
raised,  since  he  knew  that  in  raising  them  Israel  had  victory, 
and  in  lowering  them  Amalek  had  it?  Why  did  he  not  keep 
his  hands  raised  until  all  the  Amalekites  had  perished?  the 


68  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

answer  is,  that  this  was  done  in  accordance  with  the  com- 
mand of  God  when  he  ordered  that  others  should  lower  them, 
that  beholders  may  know  the  high  station  he  had  before  God. 
They,  no  less  than  the  whole  nation,  had  need  to  know.  This 
took  place,  according  to  what  we  have  kept  in  our  memory, 
on  Friday. 

The  Standing  of  the  Sun. 

The  battle  did  not  cease  at  the  end  of  the  day.  Therefore 
the  sun  stopped  for  a  sufficient  time  to  allow  Joshua  a  com- 
plete victory  over  the  Amalekites  before  sunset.  Amalek  and 
the  people  who  followed  him  must  be  killed  before  the  com- 
ing in  of  the  Sabbath,  for  at  the  sunset  the  Sabbath  would  be- 
gin, and  Jsrael  would  be  bound  in  with  its  conditions,  and 
could  not  continue  the  fight.  This  we  have  taken  from  the 
book  attributed  to  him  and  known  as  the  book  of  Joshua. 
And  God  knows  all  these  things  best. 

However,  we  could  infer  this  from  Ex.  xvii.  12,  for  we 
read:  "And  his  hands  were  kept  steady  until  the  going  down 
of  the  sun."  This  was  due,  probably,  to  what  we  know  of 
the  same  verse  and  the  preceding  one.  When  Amalek  and 
his  people  were  destroyed,  God  commanded  Moses  to  write 
down  the  record  of  this  battle  in  a  roll,  and  to  read  it  in  the 
hearing  of  Joshua,  that  he  and  the  people  might  know  that 
God  had  blotted  out  the  name  and  the  mention  of  the  Amale- 
kites from  under  the  entire  heaven,  that  the  people  might  re- 
cover their  courage,  as  they  had  been  terribly  afraid,  since 
the  giant  had  come  from  a  very  far  place  to  fight  them  boldly. 
Then  the  apostle  built  in  that  place  an  altar,  and  sacrificed 
thank  offerings  to  God  for  his  health,  and  called  the  place 
"  Jehovah  is  my  standard,"  meaning  "  O  Jehovah,  thou  art 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  69 

my  high  mark.  To  thee  I  direct  myself  in  the  time  of  need, 
as  men  direct  themselves  to  the  standard  of  the  king  wherein 
his  camp  is  in  the  time  of  need."  Some  learned  men  claim 
that  the  name  was  not  called  Nessij,  but  Ness,  without  the  ij, 
meaning  that  this  altar  was  to  be  a  standard  of  a  sign  to  Israel 
whereby  the  nations  should  know  what  God  had  done  for 
them  in  delivering  them  from  Amalek.  Therefore  it  was 
called  Hanness,  meaning  the  standard  of  the  sign.  Some  say 
it  is  derived  from  Hannosch,  which  is  the  name  given  to  the 
angel  who  is  occupied  with  the  affairs  of  Israel,  and  this  is 
the  interpretation  of  our  most  devout  and  chiefest  of  poets, 
our  lord  Phinehas,  in  the  words  to  be  spoken  on  the  great 
day  of  great  fasting,  and  those  of  his  son  our  lord  Abishah. 
Among  the  secret  properties  of  this  name  one  is  that  it  con- 
tains the  exact  numerical  value  of  the  period  our  lord  Moses 
lived— 120  years.  NeSeH=120. 

The  apostle  closed  his  words  with  the  saying,  "  The  hand 
is  upon  the  throne  of  Jehovah.  (He  has  sworn)  there  will 
be  a  war  for  Jehovah  with  Amalek  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration." Some  explain  the  last  two  words  forever  and  ever. 
This  was  done  so  that  Joshua  might  not  be  carried  off  with 
his  strength  and  courage  because  he  destroyed  Amalek,  but 
that  he  might  remember  that  his  ability  was  from  God,  that 
he  might  be  humble  and  attribute  nothing  to  himself.  From 
the  word  Kessah  we  have  now  what  we  call  "  the  verse  of 
the  throne,"  for  the  word  means  "  throne."  And  God  pos- 
sesses the  best  knowledge. 

Any  one  that  desires  to  learn  further,  let  him  read  what  our 
learned  men  have  written  upon  the  Sabbath  of  Amalek.  This 
is  all  that  my  sickly  intelligence  and  weak  mind  has  discov- 
ered, and  we  will  some  day  return  to  God. 


70  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

XVIII.      THE   TIME   OF  JETHRO's  VISIT. 

A  question  concerning  the  story  of  Jethro:  When  did  he 
come  to  his  son-in-law?  Was  it  while  he  was  in  Rephidim 
or  after?  According  to  the  order  in  the  Torah,  he  arrived 
at  Rephidim  before  Israel  went  to  Mount  Sinai;  but  we 
cannot  be  led  with  the  order,  for  the  words  of  the  Torah  may 
imply  the  time  either  before  or  after.  We  believe,  however, 
that  it  is  more  correct  to  hold  that  his  visit  was  on  Mount 
Sinai.  Compare  Ex.  xviii.  5 :  "And  Jethro,  the  father-in- 
law  of  Moses,  came  with  his  sons  and  his  wife  to  the  wilder- 
ness where  he  was  encamped,  at  the  mount  of  God."  These 
words  are  clear  enough,  and  need  no  more  explanation.  Ac- 
cording to  the  commentaries  written  by  that  most  excellent 
doctor  of  blessed  memory,  Sadakah,  his  visit  to  Mount  Sinai 
was  in  the  second  year  after  the  erection  of  the  tabernacle. 
We  can  prove  that  from  the  words  given  in  the  fifth  book 
i.  G :  "  Jehovah  our  God  spoke  to  us  in  Horeb,  saying,  Ye 
have  dwelt  long  enough  in  this  mountain.  Turn  and  take 
your  journey,"  etc.  Then  in  the  next  passage,  beginning  with 
verse  9 :  "And  I  spake  unto  you  at  that  time,  saying.  I  am 
not  able  to  bear  you  alone  myself,"  etc. 

Read  the  following  verses,  where  he  informs  us  that  he 
established  "  chiefs  of  thousands  and  of  hundreds,"  referring 
to  what  Jethro  his  father-in-law  had  advised  him.  Thus  we 
know  that  it  was  before  their  departure  from  Mount  Sinai 
this  new  arrangement  was  done.  It  was  due  to  Jethro,  who 
gave  the  advice  the  very  morning  of  the  day  when  he  arrived 
at  where  the  apostle  was,  as  we  read  in  Ex.  xviii.  13.  This 
passage  is  the  greatest  proof  to  us  that  Jethro  arrived  in  the 
beginning  of  the  second  year  of  the  departure  of  the  Israel- 
ites from  Egypt,  after  the  erection  of  the  tabernacle.  There- 
fore no  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  suggestion  that 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  71 

his  visit  took  place  before  their  entrance  into  the  wilderness 
of  Sinai,  for  we  read  in  Ex.  xviii.  27:  "And  Moses  sent  his 
father-in-law,  who  went  to  his  home."  Again,  we  know  the 
departure  of  Jethro  to  his  land  took  place  during  the  time 
when  they  were  about  to  leave  Mount  Sinai,  as  we  read  in 
Num.  x.  29 :  "And  Moses  said  to  Jethro,  the  son  of  Hobab  the 
Midianite,  his  father-in-law,  We  are  about  to  leave."  And 
he  asked  him  to  go  with  them ;  but  he  refused,  saying,  "  No, 
I  cannot  go,  but  I  shall  go  to  my  land  and  to  my  kindred." 
And  this  is  an  additional  and  plain  testimony  to  our  position. 

Why  Both  Hobab  and  Jethro? 

If  one  asks,  Why  was  he  called  here  Hobab  when  his  name 
was  Jethro?  we  will  say,  The  name  Hobab  means  "  loving," 
and  was  given  to  him  by  the  apostle  Moses.  Compare  Deut. 
xxxiii.  3,  Af  hobeb  ammim,  "  he  loveth  (is  lover  of)  the  peo- 
ple." He  loved  piety,  and  offered  sacrifices  of  thanks  to  God 
for  his  great  favors  to  Israel,  for  delivering  them  from  Egypt. 
Read  Ex.  xviii.  10-12 :  "  Blessed  be  Jehovah,  who  delivered 
you  from  the  hand  of  the  Egyptians,  and  from  that  of  Pha- 
raoh, .  .  .  and  Jethro,  Moses'  father-in-law,  took  a  burnt-offering 
and  sacrifices  for  God."  To  those  who  assert  that  Jethro  knew 
God  only  during  this  visit  of  his  Moses,  as  verse  11  may  in- 
dicate, we  would  say,  The  conversion  of  Jethro  took  place 
while  he  was  the  high  priest  of  Midian,  but  his  people  con- 
tinued in  their  heathenish  way,  and  he  left  them,  believing  in 
God  and  in  his  oneness.  That  is  why  the  people  lost  their 
respect  for  him,  and  his  daughters  were  driven  away,  and 
not  allowed  by  the  shepherds  to  water  their  sheep;  for  it  was 
but  right  that  his  sheep  should  have  been  given  the  right  of 
way  first  and  allowed  to  drink,  for  Jethro  was  the  high  priest. 


72  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

Were  it  not  for  his  conversion,  Moses  would  not  have  en- 
tered into  his  family  by  marrying  one  of  his  daughters. 

The  words  of  Jethro,  Attah  yadaty,  "  Now  I  know,"  im- 
ply only  a  declaration,  but  nothing  reflecting  on  his  former 
belief.  Having  heard  of  the  deeds  of  God's  power  and  great- 
ness, he  renewed  his  belief  in  him  and  his  greatness  by  say- 
ing, "  God  is  greater  than  all  the  gods." 

If  one  also  should  say,  Why  was  not  the  account  of  the 
visit  postponed,  and  recorded  at  its  own  place?  we  would 
reply  in  two  ways:  First,  as  it  was  God's  plan  to  record 
ordinances  and  occurrences,  some  anticipating  others,  and 
as  the  account  of  Jethro's  visit  was  short,  he  recorded  it  here. 
Second,  God  may  have  recorded  Jethro's  visit  in  chapter 
xviii.,  in  order  that  it  might  be  read  immediately  after  the  ac- 
count of  the  battle  with  Amalek,  that  Jethro's  superiority  and 
nobility  of  character  might  be  the  more  noticed.  He  was  re- 
lated to  Amalek,  being  the  son  of  Reuel  and  a  descendant  of 
Esau;  and  Amalek,  we  know,  was  the  son  of  Eliphaz,  a  de- 
scendant of  Esau.  The  latter  came  to  do  evil  to  Israel,  but 
the  former  came  to  do  them  good ;  and  that  is  what  prompted 
Moses  to  call  him  Hobab,  or  "  lover,"  and  to  be  pleased  with 
his  counsel,  which  he  obeyed.  He  therefore  asked  what  may 
be  read  in  Num.  x.  31-32.  A  like  example  and  precedent 
may  be  found  in  Genesis,  where  the  account  of  Judah  is  given 
in  the  story  of  Joseph,  and  where  it  is  said  that  when  Judah 
saw  the  harlot  woman,  he  went  to  her,  but  as  to  Joseph,  when 
the  harlot  saw  him  she  sought  him,  but  he  ran  away  from 
her,  and  the  difference  and  superiority  of  the  one  over  the 
other  may  be  well  marked  out.  Enough.  The  best  knowl- 
edge is  that  of  God. 

The  most  learned  and  wise  doctor,  Jacob  Ben  Isaak,  the 
physician  of  Askelon,  says,  in  his  book  called  "  The  Com- 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  73 

mentaries  of  Ordinances,"  that  Jethro  made  two  visits  to  his 
son-in-law ;  first,  in  company  with  Moses'  wife  and  two 
children;  and  last  with  the  intention  of  settling  down  with 
him  and  entering  into  his  religion  and  fulfilling  the  ordi- 
nances, together  with  all  those  who  moved  with  him  of  his 
children  and  neighbors,  thereby  becoming  like  the  Israelites, 
with  the  same  rights  and  privileges.  It  is  said  that  the  chil- 
dren of  Jethro  received  a  portion  of  the  promised  land  in 
preference  to  the  rest  of  the  Gentiles,  who  were  converted  to 
our  religion.  God  alone,  however,  is  infallible. 

XIX.      THE  SONS  OF    MOSES. 

To  the  question,  whether  the  children  of  Moses,  with  their 
mother,  returned  with  Jethro  or  remained  with  Moses,  I  an- 
swer, The  wife  of  Moses,  or  the  mother  of  the  children, 
remained  with  the  apostle  without  ever  being  known  by  him, 
as  we  know  from  Num.  xii.  1 :  "And  Miriam  and  Aaron  spake 
against  Moses  on  account  of  the  beautiful  woman  whom  he 
had  taken."  This  Ishah,  or  "  woman,"  was  exactly  the  same 
Zeborah,  and  not,  as  the  Jews  pretend,  that  the  apostle  Moses 
took  a  Cushite  woman  as  wife,  —  Kusheet,  that  is  "  a  black 
woman."  May  God  fight  them  for  this  imputation  on  the 
Apostle!  The  fact  is  that  the  apostle  Moses  did  never  re- 
marry, not  to  say  that  he  had  married  a  black  woman,  a 
marriage  that  was  quite  prohibited,  and  the  Israelites  were 
absolutely  forbidden  to  approach  such  women.  The  quali- 
fying word  is  Kasheet,  which  means  "  beautiful,"  and  not 
Kusheet,  as  the  Jews  had  it,  meaning  "  black,"  thereby  re- 
versing the  meaning  of  the  passage.1 

For  the  apostle,  after  conversing  with  God  in  the  burning 
bush,  did  never  know  a  woman;  and  we  will  prove  this  in 

'The  Samaritans  read  this  word  Kash-sheet,  and  derive  it  from 
a  verb  meaning  "to  grow  fat,  plump,  and  beautiful." 


74  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

another  place,  if  the  Lord  wills.  As  to  the  children,  ac- 
cording to  our  lord  high  priest  Jacob,  in  his  book  entitled 
"Pleasure  Hours,"  they  returned  with  Jethro;  but  the  apos- 
tle, fearing  they  might  go  astray  after  his  death,  in  accord- 
ance with  what  he  said  in  Deut.  xxxi.  39,  wrote  them  a  copy 
of  the  Torah,  and  handed  it  to  them,  and  sent  them  in  com- 
pany with  their  grandfather  Jethro.  They,  however,  did  not 
return  to  their  former  place,  but  in  company  with  a  party  of 
people,  who  were  to  see  to  the  fulfillment  of  the  Torah  and 
its  commands,  went  towards  the  east,  and  their  descendants 
are  still  living;  but  they  had  a  nomadic  life,  like  the  Arabs, 
dwelling  in  their  hair  tents.  The  writer  of  the  aforesaid  book 
says  that  their  descendants  will  live  unto  the  end,  in  their 
obedience  to  God.  When  Moses  bade  his  children  good-by, 
the  writer  says,  he  uttered  the  following  words :  "  Peace  be 
to  you,  O  Gershom  and  Eliezer!"  This  was  a  covenant  of 
peace,  a  guarantee  from  all  dangers,  and  it  would  not  be  pos- 
sible that  their  race  be  cut  off  to  the  end  of  the  world.  Only 
Jehovah  had  concealed  them  and  set  them  afar,  that  none 
may  know  their  whereabouts  until  he  permits  it.  And  God 
knows  best! 

XX.      THE    HEIR  OF   AN   ADULTERESS. 

Question :  Should  a  man  take  to  himself  a  woman  as  his 
wife  whom  he  discovers  afterwards  to  have  violated  her 
purity,  and  who  is  adjudged  to  be  killed ;  if  she  is  killed, 
who  will  be  her  heir? 

Her  heir  will  be  the  high  priest  who  adjudges  her  to  death. 
None  else,  whether  he  be  a  relative  or  neighbor,  or  even  her 
husband,  can  inherit  the  least  thing  from  her.  This  can  be 
inferred  from  Num.  v.  5-8:  "When  a  man  or  woman  com- 
mit any  sin  ...  if  the  person  have  no  kinsman  to  whom  res- 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  75 

titution  may  be  made  for  the  guilt,  such  restitution  that  is 
made  unto  Jehovah  for  guilt  must  be  the  priest's."  The 
writer  of  this  answer  compares  it  with  the  case  of  the  inheri- 
tance of  the  daughters  of  Zelophehad,  who  would  not  have 
inherited  their  father,  unless  it  were  for  the  fact  that  he  did 
rebel  against  God,  for  they  said :  "  He  was  not  among  them 
that  gathered  themselves  against  Jehovah  in  the  company  of 
Korah:  but  he  died  in  his  own  sin"  (Num.  xxvii.  3).  His 
sin  resulted  from  his  work  on  the  Sabbath :  on  that  day  he 
was  discovered  felling  wood,  which  was  not  rebellion,  and 
therefore  his  daughters  deserved  to  inherit  him.  The  unbe- 
liever or  rebellious,  according  to  our  learned  men,  can  neither 
inherit  nor  be  inherited.  It  is  said  that  in  such  a  case  as  we 
have  already  mentioned,  the  money  advanced,  or  whatever 
was  promised  to  the  woman  by  the  husband  before  the  mar- 
riage to  be  paid  by  him  after  the  marriage,  even  if  it  were 
advanced  to  her  previous  to  the  discovery  of  her  guilt,  the 
same  forms  a  part  of  her  inheritance,  and  he  can  lay  no 
claim  to  it.  And  God  knows  the  unknown. 

XXI.      THE    FACE   OF   LABAN. 

Why  is  it  that  in  Gen.  xxxi.  2,  "And  Jacob  saw  the  face  of 
Laban,  and,  behold,  they  were  not  Eynam  as  before,"  the 
plural  form  is  used?  The  reading  Eynam  refers  surely  as 
well  to  the  children  of  Laban.1  For  the  first  verse  reads, 
"And  he  heard  the  words  of  Laban's  sons,  saying,  Jacob  hath 
taken  away  all  that  was  our  father's."  Thus  Eynam  refers 
to  them  as  well  as  to  their  father.  Our  lord  Jacob  discovered 
the  inner  change  of  Laban  from  that  of  his  face ;  for  nothing 
he  concealed  within  himself  but  leaked  through  the  features 
of  his  face  and  the  utterances  of  his  tongue.  The  counte- 

*The  Hebrew  form  is  probably  a  later  correction.  It  Is  Eynen- 
noo,  —  "  it  was  not." 


,V6  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

nance  of  man  is  the  mirror  of  his  soul.  Some  say  that  the 
sharp  sight  of  the  believer  unveils  the  inner  soul.  But  God 
knows  best. 

XXII.       CONCERNING    OATHS. 

How  can  you  harmonize  the  command  of  the  decalogue, 
"  Do  not  pronounce  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God  in  vain," 
and  the  one,  "  Do  not  swear  falsely  in  my  name,"  with  "  His 
words  he  shall  not  unbind  or  break "  ?  Answer :  The  com- 
mand given  in  Deut.  v.  11,  meaning,  "Thou  shalt  not  raise/' 
etc.,  really  does  not  mean  to  prohibit  something  the  carrying 
of  which  is  sinful,  nor  the  raising  or  lifting  of  an  object  from 
one  place  to  another ;  but  the  command  means  simply,  "  Do 
not  pronounce  "  the  name  of  the  Most  High  in  false  utter- 
ances, just  as  we  have  the  same  words  Lo  tish-sha  in  the  pro- 
hibitive command  Lo  tish-sha  shoma  show,  meaning,  "  Do 
not  pronounce  or  raise  a  false  report  "  —  avoid  spreading  re- 
ports of  the  veracity  of  which  you  are  not  sure.  Our  learned 
men  have  divided  oaths  under  three  heads. 

First.  The  prohibited  oath  of  falsehood,  as  meaning 
"  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor," 
and  "  Thou  shalt  not  bear  vain  or  untruthful  witness." 

Second.  The  prohibited  oath  for  selling  or  buying  com- 
modities either  without  weight  or  measure,  but  by  mere  guess- 
work. 

Third.  The  prohibited  oaths  which  are  made  for  no  pur- 
pose whatever,  and  nothing  is  affirmed  or  denied  thereby. 
From  the  command  "  Thou  shalt  not  swear  falsely  in  my 
name,"  we  may  infer  that  an  oath  may  be  either  obligatory, 
or  lawful,  or  vicious.  The  first  is  the  right  of  the  one  ac- 
cused of  crime  but  without  evidence.  The  oath  is  to  be  made 
in  the  court  before  the  judge,  for  Jehovah  said,  "  In  my  name 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  77 

thou  shalt  swear  " ;  also,  "  The  oath  of  Jehovah  shall  be  be- 
tween them."  The  lawful  oath  is  that  which  binds  a  man  to 
performance  if  the  act  be  lawful;  as,  refraining  from  eat- 
ing, drinking,  fasting,  and  wearing  costly  apparels,  etc.  The 
oath  in  such  cases  is  binding,  and  must  be  carried  out.  The 
vicious  oath  is  that  which  is  made  falsely,  coupling  the  name 
of  the  Most  High  God  with  things  unlikely  or  false,  and 
thereby  dishonoring  him.  Compare  "  Ye  shall  not  swear 
falsely  in  my  name,  and  thus  profane  the  name  of  thy  God. 
I  am  Jehovah." 

The  punishment  of  such  a  transgression  must  be  meted  out 
with  death.  The  transgressor  profanes  the  name  God  by 
such  an  oath,  made  in  any  other  tongue.  As  to  Lev.  v.  2, 
it  means  that  the  swearer  rashly  must  be  bound  to  his  oath, 
if  sin  is  not  to  be  committed ;  but  if  his  oath  is  due  to  causes 
which  render  him  unconscious  of  his  oath,  such  as  drinking, 
be  is  not  responsible ;  if  conscious,  he  is  quite  responsible  and 
must  carry  out  his  obligation.  Then  God  said,  "  He  shall  not 
break  his  word ;  he  shall  do  according  to  all  that  which  pro- 
ceeded out  of  his  mouth." 

Our  learned  men  have  written  with  great  zeal  concerning 
the  import  of  "  Thou  shalt  not  pronounce  the  name  of  Jeho- 
vah thy  God  falsely."  Of  the  many  allusions  this  passage 
contains,  one  is  to  the  hypocrite,  who  shows  piety  to  the 
world,  but  who  is  secretly  attached  to  his  sins  and  to  a  life 
of  immorality,  a  slave  to  his  passions,  and  therefore  his  con- 
nection with  God  is  groundless,  and  the  pronunciation  of 
God's  name  is  in  vain,  and  untrue  to  his  conviction.  There- 
fore God  said :  "  For  Jehovah  will  not  hold  him  guiltless, 
who  pronounces  his  name  falsely."  Clear!  the  man  whose 
conduct  is  so  characterized  is  more  afraid  of  the  creature 
than  of  the  Creator,  and  cannot  be  guiltless  before  God,  for 


78  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

his  false  oath.  Every  word  of  God  as  given  in  the  revealed 
Torah  through  our  lord  Moses  (upon  whom  be  peace)  pos- 
sesses several  allusions  which  are  to  be  applied  in  their 
proper  places.  This  is  enough  for  the  man  who  lays  aside 
his  prejudice,  and  is  willing  to  receive  guidance  and  act 
piously.  In  all  such  things  let  God  be  the  final  judge,  and 
let  the  sentence  he  utters  be  carried  out.  This  is  all  which  a 
tired  mind  and  sickly  intelligence  could  discover.  But  the 
Most  High  knows  best  what  is  ideally  right. 

XXIII.      THE    INHERITANCE    OF    A    WOMAN    WHO    MARRIES    OUT- 
SIDE  THE   TRIBE. 

If  a  man  should  die  leaving  behind  him  wealth,  such  as 
land,  etc.,  but  no  male  heir  who  may  legally  inherit  him ;  if 
he  should  be  survived  by  daughters,  married  in  families  other 
than  his  and  outside  of  the  tribe,  what  should  be  done  with 
the  wealth  of  the  defunct?  Have  the  daughters  any  rightful 
claim  on  them  or  not?  What  would  follow?  The  answer 
(praise  be  to  God  only)  is  as  follows.  The  daughters  who 
are  the  only  offspring  of  their  parents  should  marry  their 
cousins  of  their  tribe,  if  they  desire  valid  claim  to  their 

shares,    in   order   that   the    inheritance    may    continue    to   be 

• 

theirs.  Remember  that  the  daughters  of  Zelophehad,  when 
their  request  was  granted,  were  conditioned  to  marry  in  the 
tribe  of  their  father;  for  the  inheritance  should  never  pass 
from  one  tribe  to  another.  Our  predecessors  (may  God  be 
pleased  with  them)  said,  and  their  saying  must  be  obeyed, 
that  even  if  the  daughter  who  has  inherited  from  her  father 
should  desire  to  marry  a  man  outside  of  her  tribe  she  would 
be  disinherited,  and  others  worthier  than  she,  who  belong  to 
the  tribe,  would  receive  the  inheritance.  This  statement  is 
absolute,  and  liable  to  no  modification.  The  land  of  the  de- 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  7i) 

funct  should  not  be  transferred  to  his  daughters  who  are  his 
only  heirs,  but  who  have  married  into  another  tribe.  The 
inheritance  of  their  father  must  remain  intact:  another  tribe 
is  not  to  enjoy  its  use.  It  must  be  preserved  and  carefully 
guarded  until  God's  purpose  is  made  manifest  relative  to  the 
daughters  of  the  defunct.  Should  their  husbands  die,  they 
are  entitled  to  the  inheritance;  should  they  die,  the  inherit- 
ance becomes  the  property  of  the  House  of  God,  if  there  is 
none  that  may  have  a  legal  claim  to  it.  Cf.  Num.  v.  8,  "And 
if  there  is  no  kinsman  to  the  man  that  restitution  may  be 
made  to  him  for  the  guilt,  the  restitution  that  is  made  for 
the  guilt  unto  Jehovah  shall  belong  to  the  priest."  The  res- 
titution to  the  priest  is  made  as  if  to  the  House  of  God.  This 
is  according  to  our  understanding  of  the  law  and  to  the  exact 
interpretation  of  our  learned  men.  But  the  Most  High  God 
knows  best  the  exact  truth.  Verily  he  knou's  the  unknown. 

XXIV.      THE    USE    OF    RENNET. 

Some  of  my  people  asked  me  concerning  the  use  made  by 
our  predecessors  of  the  rennet  of  the  suckling  kid,  in  order 
to  make  cheese,  by  placing  it  in  milk,  and  the  continuance  of 
this  custom  until  the  attention  of  the  humble  writer  was  called 
to  it,  resulting  in  its  abolition  ;  and  since  then  we  have  not 
discovered  any  using  it.  As  to  the  use  of  the  rennet  by  our 
people,  I  may  say  it  is  surely  a  great  vice  which  our  people 
introduced  inadvertently.  They  had  either  taken  it  from  the 
Jews,  or  had  been  deceived  into  adopting  it  by  some  indiffer- 
ent believers  in  the  days  of  Benutan.  Nobody  seemed  to  have 
spoken  against  the  practice,  as  it  is  evident  many  generations 
had  come  and  passed  without  the  least  attention  having  been 
called  to  it. 

If  one  should  ask,  How  could  this  have  taken  place  during 


80  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

all  this  time  and  period,  the  length  of  which  is  unknown,  and 
none  of  the  former  learned  and  able  men  had  ever  attempted 
to  oppose  and  prohibit  the  practice?  for  an  answer,  I  can 
only  say  that  God,  in  his  divine  foreknowledge,  knew  that 
doubtless  some  faults  would  be  unknowingly  committed  by 
his  hosts,  and  their  eyes  could  not  discover  them,  and  there- 
fore, he  said  in  Lev.  iv.  13:  "And  if  the  whole  congregation 
of  Israel  shall  err,  and  a  certain  thing  be  hid  from  the  eyes 
of  the  assembly."  Otherwise  no  need  of  this  passage  would 
have  been  found.  No  guilt  is  therefore  to  be  laid  on  us,  or 
on  those  who  preceded  us,  for  this  past  practice ;  for  it  was 
due  to  a  general  inadvertence.  Behold  how  careful  we  are  in 
our  use  of  meat  in  connection  with  milk  or  milk  in  connection 
with  meat.  Should  a  vessel  have  the  least  trace  of  flesh  or 
milk;  should  it  not  even  be  very  clean,  and  then  any  of  the 
two  substances,  flesh  or  milk,  be  placed  in  it,  it  becomes,  ac- 
cording to  us,  Tamay,  that  is,  "  defiled."  Even  if  the  salt  that 
touched  the  meat  be  used  with  milk,  the  same  state  of  pollu- 
tion would  follow,  and  we  could  not  use  the  milk. 

The  rennet  is,  in  reality,  one  of  the  portions  of  the  sheep 
or  kid  that  belong  to  the  priest,  and  should  be  immediately 
delivered  to  him,  and  no  delay  made:  for  it  is  Kadosh. 
"  holy."  Since  it  contains  milk,  and  the  butcher  removes  it 
and  cuts  it  while  both  his  knife  and  hands  are  stained  with 
flesh  and  blood,  it  becomes  binding  to  us  to  have  nothing  to 
do  with  its  use  as  food,  if  we  are  to  be  faithful  to  our  tradi- 
tion and  practices.  I,  therefore,  in  order  to  keep  my  religious 
duties,  have  put  its  use  under  the  ban.  Its  eating  is  neither 
necessary  nor  binding,  and  we  have  neither  command  nor  law 
to  that  effect ;  but  we  use  it  as  we  use  butter  and  fat  and  the 
like.  It  is  unlike  the  unleavened  bread  and  the  sacrifices  of 
the  Passover  which  must  be  eaten.  We  must  not  defile  our 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  81 

souls  by  a  doubtful  thing  which  we  can  easily  do.  God  said, 
"  Do  not  defile  your  souls,"  and  "  Ye  shall  be  holy  to  God/' 
etc.  This  is  sufficient.  To  obey  is  safest,  and  God  knows 
best. 

XXV.      THE   ABRIDGMENT    BY    LAYMEN    OF    THE   AUTHORITY 
OF  THE  PRIESTHOOD. 

A  few  men  of  the  laity  protested  that  they  should  be  "  as- 
sociates "  of  the  Scribes  in  giving  judgments  and  supervising 
the  estates  of  the  priesthood.  Can  there  be  any  attention  paid 
to  them,  and  have  they  any  right  to  their  claim?  If  what  they 
claim  is  vain,  please  give  them  a  confuting  reply,  and  convict 
them  strongly  of  their  vicious  pretensions;  and  may  the  kind 
giver  reward  you ! 

The  answer:  The  noble  Torah  gives  the  children  of  Levi 
complete  authority  over  all  the  estates  or  offerings  of  the 
temple.  .  None  else  can  have  any  hand  in  these  matters.  Thus 
said  God  in  Num.  xviii.  1 :  "And  Jehovah  said  to  Aaron, 
Thou  and  thy  sons  and  thy  fathers'  house  with  thee  shall 
bear  the  iniquity  of  the  sanctuary.  And  thou  and  thy  sons 
with  thee  shall  bear  the  iniquity  of  your  priesthood.  And  thy 
brethren  also,  the  line  of  Levi,  the  tribe  of  thy  father,  draw 
them  near  with  thee,  that  they  will  be  responsible  as  he  was." 
God  foreknew  that  the  descendants  of  Aaron  are  the  chil- 
dren of  Levi.  Again,  we  are  plainly  told  that  in  whatever 
matter  not  indicated  by  the  law,  the  decision  of  the  priests, 
the  sons  of  Levi,  should  prevail,  and  could  not  be  modified 
unless  by  some  legal  reasons.  Read  Deut.  xviii.  8 :  "If  there 
be  concealed  from  thee  a  matter  in  judging,  as  between  blood 
and  blood,  between  plea  and  plea,  or  stroke  and  stroke,  mat- 
ters of  controversy  .  .  .  arise,  and  go  up  to  the  place,  which 
Jehovah  thy  God  has  chosen,  to  the  Levite  priests."  Their 


82  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

decision  is  binding,  as  we  read  in  verse  10 :  "  according  to  the 
decision  they  shall  tell  thee  thou  shalt  do;  thou  shalt  not  turn 
aside  from  the  sentence  they  shall  show  thee,  neither  to  the 
right  nor  to  the  left."  The  same  is  affirmed  in  those  things 
set  apart  for  God :  "  Then  the  priest  shall  value  it,  whether 
it  be  good  or  bad;  as  the  priest  shall  value  it,  so  it  shall 
stand"  (Lev.  xxvii.  14). 

In  addition,  I  must  say  that,  from  Scriptural  inferences, 
the  high  priest  of  the  people  must  have  his  due  honor.  None 
should  injure  his  name  or  measure  up  himself  beyond  him, 
as  one  may  do  with  others.  His  people  should  pay  him  their 
respects  and  esteem,  and  should  not  look  at  him  as  any  of 
their  ordinary  fellow  citizens.  Distinction  and  preference 
should  be  given  all  his  people,  for  it  is  apparent  to  all  intel- 
ligent people  that  not  every  man  of  any  grade  could  be 
made  into  a  high  priest,  lest  his  practices  humiliate  him  and 
keep  him  aloof,  lest  God  be  displeased  and  his  worship  be 
vain ;  this  especially  given  with  reference  to  the  Levites,  who 
are,  as  the  righteous  Lord  has  said,  the  chosen  persons  for 
priesthood,  prayer,  blessing,  and  divine  judgments.  Com- 
pare Deut.  xviii.  5 :  "  For  Jehovah  thy  God  has  chosen  him 
out  of  all  thy  tribes,  that  he  may  stand  to  serve  in  the  name 
of  Jehovah,  he  and  his  sons  all  the  days."  This  means  that 
they  were  chosen  from  ancient  days  to  be  honored  and  re- 
spected. 

I  have  found,  also,  that  the  Levite  must  not  be  discarded 
and  others  followed :  "  Beware  of  discarding  the  Levite  the 
length  of  thy  days  on  earth"  (Deut.  xii.  19).  It  is  in  con- 
nection with  the  tribe  of  Levi  that  the  apostle  Moses  made 
the  prayer  found  in  Deut.  xxxiii.  11,  that  its  prayers  may  be 
heard,  and  blessings  may  be  bestowed ;"  that  its  enemies  may 
be  crushed,  as  "  O  Jehovah,  bless  his  strength,  and  be  pleased 


The  Book  of  Enlightenment.  8:> 

with  the  works  of  his  hands."  A  warning  is  given  that  the 
Levite  may  not  be  opposed,  as  we  read  in  the  same  verse: 
"  But  break  through  the  loins  of  those  that  rebel  against  him 
and  hate  him."  The  learned  Hasam  Assoory  of  Tyrus  ex- 
plains these  words  as  follows:  He  who  harbors  any  evil 
thing  or  hatred  against  this  tribe,  Jehovah  will  smite  him 
with  great  calamities,  and  his  plans  will  fail;  for  the  pray- 
ers or  curses  of  the  Levites  shoot  through  faster  than  the 
very  arrows.  As  to  the  words  "  Break  through  the  loins  of 
his  opposers  and  haters,"  they  mean  that  he  who  would  plan 
to  do  such  things  is  only  a  darer,  who  is  unaware  of  his  con- 
ditions, and  is  like  the  man  who  drinks  poison  to  try  it.  To 
impress  the  people  with  dire  consequences  of  such  an  attempt, 
he  says,  "  Who  could  oppose  him  ? "  Therefore,  I  believe 
that  it  is  not  lawful  to  depart  at  any  time  from  their  given 
decisions  and  pleasures,  nor  is  it  lawful  to  call  a  halt  to  them 
through  reasons  of  expediency,  on  merely  mental  grounds  — 
for  they  have  been  long  before  empowered  by  the  declara- 
tions of  the  Torah,  and  it  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  the  de- 
cisions of  others  are  applicable  to  them  unless  there  is 
against  them  a  legal  plea.  And  God  knoivs  best. 

Now  I  ask  you  readers  of  this  my  epistle  to  explain  to  me 
the  exact  meaning  of  the  words  of  Jehovah  in  Deut.  xix.  14, 
"  Thou  sha.lt  not  remove  the  landmarks  of  thy  neighbors 
which  the  ancients  have  set  up."  What  meaning  do  you  put 
on  the  word  Reeshoneem,  "  first  ones,"  "  ancient  ones  "  ?  God 
has  affirmed  this  command  with  strong  terms,  for  he  said, 
"  Cursed  be  the  man  who  changes  the  landmarks  of  his 
neighbor." 

Pray,  inform  me,  also,  concerning  the  meaning  of  the 
words,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  I  am 
God."  How  contrary  to  this  command  do  we  act!  How  we 


84  The  Book  of  Enlightenment. 

do  hate  each  other,  and  how  we  do  backbite  each  other!  To 
these  things  is  due  our  downfall  and  utter  relapse.  So  much 
is  sufficient. 

And,  as  for  the  rest,  though  it  is  unknown  to  me,  and  I 
understand  not  even  the  boundaries  of  that  which  I  know  not, 
it  is  definite  in  the  mind  of  God,  and  he  knows  all.  Amen. 

WRITTEN  ON  THE  29th  DAY  OF  SHEWAL,  CORRESPONDING  TO 
THE  21st  OF  NOVEMBER  OF  THE  ARABIC  YEAR  1325  (1907), 

15Y  ITS  HUMBLE  AUTHOR  JACOB,  THE  PRIEST  OF  THE  SAMARI- 
TAN PEOPLE  IN  NABLOUS. 


BIBLIOTHECA  SACRA 

A  Religious  and  Sociological  ^Quarterly 

EDITOR 

G.  FREDERICK  WRIGHT 

Single  Number,  75  cents  Yearly  Subscription,  $3.00 

Oberlin,  Ohio.   U.  S.  A. 
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